How tempting was it to chase movie stars or teen acts?
We stayed away from it. The only nonmusic cover I did was Jimmy Fallon, which just came out (March 2002). There was temptation to chase the bubblegum stuff, the teen stuff, and I think it was important not to do that. I think it was important to retain Spin as a safe space away from the stuff that kids were getting assaulted with everywhere they looked. Keeping Spin a Britney-free zone was a serious mission of mine. But you can make the argument that a lot of the rap-rock acts that Spin has featured skewed toward the teen audience as well. I think it’s accurate to say that, but they’re still a rock band, [while] Jessica Simpson is not. That’s not a musical judgment, but an audience judgment and attitude judgment. It made sense for Spin to cover those acts; that was the state of rock & roll at the time. What cover subject were you most excited about that nobody picked up? It was an experiment, but I was disappointed when Outkast died for us. That was one I really wanted to see go. It wo
