Jann Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone, is also co-founder and former chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Foundation. Wenner himself was inducted into the hall in 2004 as a non-performer, receiving the Ahmet Ertegun Award, named for the Atlantic Records founder. Wenner stepped down from his role as chairman after the 2019 induction ceremony, but he still has strong opinions about who belongs in the hall. In a new interview, he expressed one of them.

Speaking with Billboard, Wenner objected to the upcoming induction of music business lawyer Allen Grubman, who’s set to receive the Ertegun award at this year’s ceremony Nov. 5 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Per Billboard, Grubman, a fellow co-founder of the Rock Hall, counts some of the biggest acts in music as clients, including Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, U2, Mariah Carey, Lil Nas X, Lizzo, the Weeknd, J Balvin, Lady Gaga, and the David Bowie estate. His firm, Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks, also represents Spotify, Live Nation, and the major record companies and music publishers.

“Allen Grubman has made no contribution of any kind, by any definition, to the creative development or the history of rock & roll,” Wenner told Billboard. “He has been chosen because of his clout as entertainment super lawyer. This decision is about money and bending to the ego of a music business power broker.” In Wenner’s recent memoir Like A Rolling Stone, he made vague reference to the situation in a passage he confirmed to Billboard is about Grubman: “After I resigned, I was told that music business power-brokers on the board were going to be inducted. These individuals had made not one iota of difference to the history, present or future of the creation of music, which was the explicit criterion. But they had accumulated influence and wealth. It was an inside job.”

Grubman was nominated by Jon Landau, yet another Rock Hall co-founder, who manages Springsteen, Landau’s client. “Jon remains one of my oldest and best friends,” Wenner told Billboard. “But we completely disagree about this. We have different agendas. Mine is the integrity of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. Jon has got a business relationship to maintain” — a relationship that constitutes a “conflict of interest” in this regard, Wenner added.

Wenner, of course, has never prioritized his friends and associates when it comes to honor and acclaim via Rolling Stone and the Rock Hall.