You Choose the Cover of Rolling Stone

Over the years, Rolling Stone has featured some of the greatest artists of all time on its cover. With our new Do You Wanna Be A Rock & Roll Star? contest, it's up to you to help us find our next big cover star. We've selected 16 unsigned acts to compete for a chance to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone in August and receive a recording contract from Atlantic Records.

Here's how it works. In the first stage of the competition, you can get to know the bands by listening to their music and reading their Q&As at rollingstone.com/choosethecover. We will be regularly updating the site with new posts, galleries and videos featuring the contestants. Once you're familiar with all the bands, you can vote for your favorites.

Photos: Random Notes

The eight most popular acts will then head into the studio with a major producer to record music for the second round of voting on March 16th. The four survivors will then play a live showcase in front of editors and music executives to advance to the final round - an epic battle of the bands at the Bonnaroo festival in June.

Choose the Cover of 'Rolling Stone'

The winner of the contest will be announced on the August 1st episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The band will go on to make their live television debut on the program. Watch the video below to see Fallon introducing the contest earlier this week.

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Song Stories

“Baby Got Back”

Sir Mix-a-Lot | 1992

While watching a Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl, Sir Mix-a-Lot thought the skinny female models in the ad didn’t represent reality. So he wrote this ode to ample bottoms, featuring its famous to-the-point lyric: “I like big butts and I cannot lie.” MTV banished the video, featuring shaking booties and sexually suggestive fruit, to 9 p.m. or later. “I thought my career was over,” he told Rolling Stone. “Then I called Rick Rubin, and I told him the video was banned, and he was like, 'Great!' We sold another 2 million records.”

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