Weeks before he was due to appear on the cover of the Australian Rolling Stone, the country's prime minister has been exposed as a rock 'n' roll ignoramus. A newspaper columnist writes that he once asked politician Kevin Rudd what he thought of Jimi Hendrix.

"Who's he?" replied Rudd.

During his 2007 campaign, Rudd was asked about his rock 'n' roll heroes. After mentioning Simon and Garfunkel, he went with Vivaldi. "I am a big fan of baroque," he said.

Not surprisingly, Rolling Stone's Australian editor has softened his commitment to the proposed Rudd cover feature. It may not run at all, he says: "It just depends on whether it's Rolling Stone or not."

Maybe they can replace it with "Vivaldi: He's Hot, He's Sexy and He's Dead."