Kanye West Might Have Saved Rolling Stone A Big Headache

Blame Kanye West for Rolling Stone‘s controversial cover image featuring Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, says Gawker. According to their “reliable” but unnamed source, the magazine was planning a profile and interview with West for the August 1 issue, and they planned to put it on the front. (No surprise. When Kanye West describes his latest album, it’s usually an awesome spectacle from which few can avert their eyes.) Gawker writes:

But for whatever reason, West apparently pulled out of the story. So the digitally illustrated Dzhokhar Tsarnaev profile photo was the magazine’s back-up plan for the cover, tied to Janet Reitman’s 11,000-word opus.

This doesn’t seem like a terribly strange or unusual circumstance for a magazine and, lest you think Gawker is seriously suggesting we lay blame at Kanye’s door, it’s not much of an out. Magazines resort to Plan Bs all the time, but they still have to run with something they’re willing to stand by. (And, yes, Rolling Stone has stood by their cover.)

But this tidbit does reveal a controversy-free alternate reality. If Kanye had cooperated, Rolling Stone could have left the Tsarnaev profile to the inside pages, and done something mild and inoffensive with the cover like featuring Kanye dressed as Jesus, or something … Oh wait, they used that idea in 2006.

It’s a rare day when Kanye West is someone’s least controversial choice.