It’s a big day for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as this year’s class of inductees have officially been named. JAY-Z, The Go-Gos, and musical oddity Todd Rundgren will be recognized, while three others in the Performers Category make their return this year. Carole King and Tina Turner will be honored for their solo work, while Dave Grohl is welcomed back to the stage with his post-Nirvana bandmates Foo Fighters.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame President and CEO Greg Harris joined Audacy host Ryan Castle today to talk about the big announcement and get his take on what to expect during this year’s ceremony – happening live on October 30 in the Rock Hall’s home city of Cleveland and airing on HBO properties at a later date.
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“It’s a huge day… it’s like our Super Bowl day for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” Harris says grinning with excitement. Once again, this year’s ballot was determined by a body of over 1,000 artists, historians, members of the music industry, and fans via a fan vote. From the New York Dolls to Dionne Warwick, it was a highly diverse line-up of nominees going in at the beginning of the year.
“The common thread is impact and influence,” Harris says. “When you think about those nominees, it was an incredible group of sixteen. Any five or six would have been a great class, but they were all impactful and influential, and that’s the key. In their day, the New York Dolls didn’t sell that many records, but everybody that bought ‘em wanted to start bands.”
Speaking of the praise women, and specifically Black women have received during this year’s presentation, Harris admits he is “thrilled that the diversity carried over into the induction class. It is a time when we think about artists that are impacted by great female artists, by great diverse artists, and that Rock & Roll isn’t one thing. It’s not just four skinny guys with long hair and guitars in the classic sense. It’s a big tent and we embrace all of it.”
As evidenced by this year’s nominees and inductees, “Rock & Roll is an attitude, more than just a style of music,” Ryan says, and Greg couldn’t agree more. “I think that’s dead on,” he says, “and that attitude is always pushing for change; it’s frequently a voice for the voiceless, and Rock & Roll is a spirit, it’s an attitude absolutely.” Laughing along with Ryan’s suggestion, he agrees that “Rock n’ Roll should scare people’s parents; it should motivate and inspire kids. We all know it, we know what drove us. Sometimes it was an unbelievable, howling scratchy old Blues record, or maybe it was a Garage rock band… or maybe it was just some powerful, powerful beat and statement. It moves you.”
History could be happening in real time as Ryan got Greg thinking about Dave Grohl’s induction with Foo Fighters, resulting in him getting inducted twice under first-ballot nominations. “You might have something there,” Harris says. “Boy, think about it, The Beatles didn’t go in their first year of eligibility… neither did Bob Dylan! We're gonna have to look, but I think you may be onto something with first-timers.”
Touchy topic ahead: Those Who Didn’t Make It In. Iron Maiden fans like Dee Snyder are upset, who said recently that the Rock Hall was “arrogant” and “elitist” for not including a number of beloved metal groups.
“It’s an interesting one,” Harris says, “because we do. We celebrate all forms of Rock & Roll. They were nominated; we nominated Maiden, Judas Priest have been nominated, we put Def Leppard in… Those that are nominated, over 80% of them eventually do get inducted. So it’s really a question of, let’s keep nominating them, let’s get ‘em on the ballot, and let’s get it out to the voting body. This ballot had sixteen artists on it… they just can’t all go in.”
Watch the full interview above as Greg explains the detailed nomination and voting process and gives us a special rundown of all of this year’s inductees.
The 2021 ceremony will take place live on October 30 at Cleveland's Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, following health and safety guidelines and proper social-distancing protocols in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re not gonna put tickets on sale until July, because we want to better understand what our capacity can be,” Harris says. “But we’re confident we can do it.”
The ceremony will air on HBO and stream on HBO Max on a date still to be determined.
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