Country Stars Who Have Been on the Cover of ‘Rolling Stone’
On Nov. 9, 1967, the first-ever Rolling Stone magazine hit newsstands. The price? 25 cents. Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton's albums were reviewed, and John Lennon graced the cover. The magazine immediately garnered much popularity as there wasn't anything quite like it.
It was a mind expanding time," recalls founding managing editor Michael Lydon. "It was not a niche market kind of thing. Music was the core, that was the thing that brought everybody together."
Today, Rolling Stone magazine remains relevant by focusing on a mix of music, politics and pop culture. Throughout the decades, that mix has included country music, including putting several country artists on the magazine's cover.
Roots rock group the Band were the first country act to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone, in 1968; more recently, Eric Church earned the cover spot in August of 2018, and Willie Nelson graced the cover for a third time in May of 2019. Click through the photo gallery below to see all of the mag's country covers.