Hello and thank you for downloading Witness from the BBC World Service with me Ashley Byrne.

Today I'm taking you back to 1967 and the birth of the groundbreaking Rolling Stone magazine.

I've been speaking to writer and musician Michael Leiden who was there at the very beginning.

Rolling Stone.

Wonna see my picture on the cover.

Gonna buy five copies for my mother.

Yeah!

Want to see my smile and face on the cover of the rolling stone.

This is the letter from the editor for the first issue of Rolling Stone in

1967 and goes as follows. You're probably wondering what we're trying to do. It's

hard to say, sort of a magazine, sort of a newspaper.

The name of it is Rolling Stone, which comes from an old saying,

A Rolling Stone Gadows, no Moss.

Muddy Waters used the name for a song he wrote.

The Rolling Stones took their name for Muddy Song, and like Rolling Stone was the title

of Bob Bill's first rock and roll record.

Like a Rolling Stone.

On the 9th of November 1967, a brand new music publication, Rolling Stone magazine hit the newsstands in San Francisco.

Rolling Stone found its audience instantly, and immediately we were getting calls from agents and

managers and artists. I remember Eric Clapton called up. John Sebastian

or the Love and Spoonful called up. People wanting coverage wanted to have this story in the paper right away.

Michael Leiden was Rolling Stone magazine's first managing editor.

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