Rock & Roll Hall of Fame CEO, Greg Harris, discusses the Class of '24 - Mary J. Blige, Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Kool & The Gang, Ozzy Osbourne and A Tribe Called Quest - and confirms that Boyd Tinsley will be inducted with Dave Matthews Band,
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Well, they were announced last night, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees during
00:09American Idol, Ryan Sequest and Lionel Richie brought you the list, but we've got somebody
00:14even more important than that to talk about this because he is El Presidente, the CEO,
00:21the head honcho of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and we like to call him friend, ladies
00:25and gentlemen, Greg Harris is joining us once again.
00:30Good morning, Greg.
00:32Good morning.
00:33Thanks for that generous intro.
00:34I've been listening in the green room here.
00:37You guys are really getting rammy.
00:40You've been up for a while.
00:42Yes.
00:42It's getting a little.
00:43Yeah, that's the way we are.
00:44It's a Monday.
00:45We're very rammy.
00:46Yeah, a little rammy.
00:48So listen, Greg, we're looking at you via Zoom.
00:51Are you at the Rock Hall right now?
00:52Are you at home or where are you that you're checking in from?
00:55I'm inside the pyramid at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.
00:59Awesome.
01:00Well, listen, so this was interesting, the way the announcement was made last night with
01:05American Idol.
01:05That's the first time anything like that's happened, right?
01:08Yeah, it was on primetime live on ABC, and they got rolled out by Hall of Fame inductee
01:14Lionel Richie announced a new class.
01:16And one of the reasons is we're broadcasting the ceremony this year, once again, on ABC.
01:22It'll be an edited show, and it's going to stream on Disney Plus as well as be on Hulu.
01:28So they're a partner, and with a partner, you want to work together.
01:30And they rolled it out primetime to the world.
01:34Excellent.
01:34Well, I'm going to run down the list here, and we'll chat a little bit about the inductees
01:38in the performer category.
01:40Mary J. Blige.
01:41Yes.
01:42Cher.
01:43Dave Matthews Band.
01:45Foreigner made it in.
01:47Yes.
01:47Birthday Boy Peter Frampton.
01:49Excellent.
01:50Cool and the Gang.
01:52Ozzy Osbourne.
01:53And A Tribe Called Quest are all going into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the class of
01:592024, which is pretty wild.
02:02Now, Dave Matthews Band, that was the fan-based vote, correct, Greg?
02:07Yeah, they always do well in the fan vote.
02:10They have a ton of followers, and it's really terrific.
02:13Now, to be clear, the fans do not select who goes in.
02:16There's a whole other voting body that does it.
02:20But this year, of the fan vote, seven of the top eight are being inducted.
02:25Wow.
02:25There we go.
02:26Yeah.
02:27It just worked out that way.
02:28And in addition to, you know, you name the performers category that are going in, there's
02:33also some special committees that put in artists and industry people as well, and they put
02:38in a number of folks, and it's called an award, but they're being inducted.
02:42They'll be in the Hall of Fame as well, and they're equal to the performers.
02:45And are these the Musical Excellence Award people that you refer to?
02:49Yes.
02:50Okay.
02:50So we have on that list, Jimmy Buffett.
02:53Yes.
02:54I like that.
02:55Recently lost him, of course.
02:56MC5, the great Dion Warwick is getting in, and Norman Whitfield.
03:03Now, Norman Whitfield, I don't know who that is by name.
03:05Who is that, Greg?
03:07Very, very instrumental guy with Motown.
03:10Pretty much all the Temptation stuff.
03:13He wrote a bunch of the songs, produced them, worked hand-in-hand on a lot of things with
03:18Barry Gordy and with Smokey Robinson and all the Motown folks, and he's finally being recognized.
03:24Just incredible.
03:25If you hear the lead-in to Ain't Too Proud to Beg or Ball of Confusion or any of those songs,
03:30that's Norman Whitfield.
03:32Wow.
03:32Well, then certainly well-deserved.
03:34Yeah.
03:35Yes.
03:35Also, and then there's a couple of other categories, the Musical Influence Award.
03:40What exactly is that, Greg?
03:42You know, that's artists that, again, influenced others, and frequently it's those that had come
03:48before and maybe their influence is now felt and reverberating even more.
03:53In this category, we've got Big Mama Thornton, you know, the original godmother of rock and
03:58roll, Alexis Corner and John Mayall, two of UK blues, early 60s, very, very powerful blues
04:07performers that then influenced Eric Clapton was in John Mayall's Blues Breakers, and a bunch
04:13of other artists have been there.
04:14He's still making music today, by the way, and it's a chance to recognize him for their
04:18influence.
04:19Love it.
04:19Greg, I've been a Dave Matthews Band fan for a long, long time, 30 years or so at this
04:23point, and I've seen them many times over the years.
04:26I know it's less than 24 hours since the announcements were made, but any indication as to whether
04:30or not Boy Tinsley, who is no longer in the band, will be invited to the ceremony?
04:36You know, right now, I don't have the list in front of me of all of the artists and all
04:41of the band members that are included, so I'm going to hold off on that, but we'll find
04:49out, and I'm sorry, I'm not evading it, I just am not entirely sure, and I have a feeling
04:55that he is included.
04:56As for being invited to the ceremony, that's all up to, I think, the bands and others.
05:02It's a great chance for bands to all come together again.
05:06There's been moments in our induction ceremony, speaking of Eric Clapton, when Eric Clapton,
05:10Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce, had not performed together in 24 years.
05:15They got inducted, they rehearsed, they played, and it was magic.
05:19We see that all the time, where different eras of bands come together and celebrate the
05:25induction together in our ceremony.
05:27Greg, when you guys will, obviously, before you release the information to the public,
05:32you guys will know who the inductees are going to be.
05:34Do you immediately start kicking around wishlist scenarios of how the ceremony is going to
05:41go, and the performances, and kind of have maybe a basic idea of what might take place?
05:49Yeah, you know, there's always inspiration in the show producers.
05:52It's Joel Perisman and John Sykes, the chairman and president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
05:56Foundation, and Joel Gallen, who's the show producer.
05:59They look for ways to combine yesterday and today, and surprise people, and bring out
06:05really powerful moments.
06:07For instance, when the Foo Fighters were inducted a couple years ago, Paul McCartney did their
06:12induction, and then they jammed together.
06:15You sort of connect yesterday and today, and sometimes it's like that Linda Ronstadt moment
06:21from a few years ago, where you had, Linda was unable to perform, so it was Bonnie Raitt,
06:27it was Stevie Nicks, Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris, Carrie Underwood, all together singing in
06:34tribute to her.
06:34You know, it was incredible.
06:36Yeah, it was amazing.
06:37What's sort of interesting is that, you know, obviously every year there's a little bit of
06:39controversy that's corded with people in and out, and this actually seems, you know,
06:46reaction-wise, just seeing online, everyone's, I don't see a lot of fires erupting.
06:51I think everyone is pretty comfortable with this selection.
06:55Are you sensing that as well?
06:57Yeah, there's a little something for everyone here.
07:00It's a broad net, and I think that there's a lot of celebrating.
07:05A number of these artists people thought were already inducted, and this really formalizes
07:11it, but it's an amazing class.
07:13It's an amazing group, and yeah, I think there's a little less than you get in some years, but
07:18we welcome that.
07:19It means people care, and it's okay, but, you know, it's really been terrific, and we're
07:26so excited.
07:27To that point, the new Milli Vanilli award.
07:31Hey, well, we've been checking.
07:35You know, Boyd Tinsley will be inducted with the band.
07:38I just took a peek at my band rundown notes.
07:41So, to your earlier question, they were all, you know, he'll be part of that group, of
07:47course.
07:47Well, that's kind of breaking news, and I'm glad to hear that.
07:50The band wouldn't be what they are now if not for Boyd's contributions over the first
07:5320 plus years or so.
07:54And I'm a personal fan of his, and I understand why he's not in the band right now, but I'm
07:59really glad to hear that.
08:00Thanks for sharing that, Greg.
08:02Yeah.
08:03No, my pleasure.
08:04What we do is we put a list of those, you know, the artists that we'll be in.
08:07It's at our website at rockhall.com, and you can see when you go look at the Dave Matthews
08:12band.
08:12He's included, and wonderful that he's being recognized.
08:17And one award we left out was the Ahmed Erdogan Award, and who is receiving that this year?
08:23It's Susan DePass, and this is another Motown person.
08:28It sort of rounds out that Motown culture.
08:32Suzanne was at the label.
08:34She's the one that signed the Jackson 5, really got very involved in their early music and
08:40producing them, as well as Motown's 25th anniversary specials and other monumental things.
08:45And she went on to an amazing career in entertainment, a real strong female executive that's done
08:51great.
08:52And so having Norman Whitfield and Suzanne DePass going in together is very fitting.
08:57It's pretty amazing.
08:58So the ceremony is going to be on October 19th.
09:02Is it taking place there in Cleveland?
09:04It is.
09:05It's in Cleveland, Ohio at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, and we'll get ticket information out
09:10over the next couple weeks.
09:12But hold that date.
09:13It's a Saturday.
09:14I always say it, come on out, use our radio studio, do some remotes, and have some fun
09:19out here in Cleveland.
09:20We really want to do that at some point.
09:23Things have not lent themselves to it, but it's definitely on our radar, something that
09:26we want to do.
09:27Yeah, most definitely.
09:28And as far as the inductors, the people that are doing the inducting of the...
09:34Inductification.
09:35The inductifications, if you would, please.
09:37Has any of that been announced yet?
09:42I would imagine not yet, right?
09:44Not yet.
09:45We're getting a little ahead of things right now.
09:47We're celebrating and announcing who's getting in.
09:50And then in the months ahead, we'll announce who's doing that work.
09:53And there's going to be some surprises, as always, that will be day of the show.
09:58But it's always a great chance to connect yesterday and today and celebrate it.
10:02It's one of my favorite things of that whole ceremony.
10:04The people that not only will do the inductions, but the collective jams that'll happen, and
10:10the current musicians playing some of their favorite music from the people who are receiving
10:16the award.
10:17It just promotes all this awesomeness.
10:21That is my favorite thing about those telecasts.
10:23And I feel like the live music scene has just exploded exponentially over the last few
10:29decades.
10:30You know, we just had Coachella not that long ago.
10:32Coachella didn't exist, you know, 20 years ago.
10:35And you being in this industry, it's got to be so exciting to see the newest innovations.
10:41And I'm talking now specifically about what Phish did at The Sphere this past weekend.
10:46Did you see any of the footage of their four shows at The Sphere?
10:49I did not, but I was lucky enough to catch you two out there.
10:54And it was stunning.
10:56It was remarkable.
10:57And anybody has a chance to go.
10:59I'm sure it's terrific.
11:00And I have friends, like all of us, that were out there for Phish.
11:05And many of them didn't just go to one show.
11:07They went to all four.
11:08Yeah, I actually, I had tickets for the Friday and Saturday night shows and then just unfortunately
11:13planning got in the way and I wasn't able to go.
11:16But my best friend went with another guy.
11:17And so I, but I watched from my couch on Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights.
11:22And it was just, it was unreal.
11:24And I was just so excited for what the future holds for all of us as music fans and as live
11:29music fans specifically.
11:31Well, there's a magic to live music.
11:33And I walked into The Sphere a bit of a skeptic and I left a believer.
11:37Now, to bring it back, we'll be doing this live show on October 19th here in Cleveland.
11:44And the inductions are always off the charts.
11:46It will be stacked with talent.
11:50And these artists that we're going to be, that we're celebrating today, each of them
11:54will be recognized as part of the ceremony.
11:56And then it's going to be broadcast to everybody around the world.
12:00Thanks to our friends at Disney Plus and Hulu and ABC.
12:03You don't have a sphere, but you could probably rent an overhead projector.
12:06Yeah.
12:07Which might be kind of.
12:08I like some slide projectors and an overhead projector and a little bit of some cramp.
12:14Yeah, maybe a microfiche.
12:17Greg, anything to mention at the hall that's going on now?
12:21Any special shows or that we can expect between now and the induction ceremonies?
12:26Absolutely.
12:27You know, we have live music all summer long.
12:31We've got some big shows.
12:33All Time Low is playing.
12:34Sleater Kenny is playing and a few others.
12:37And go to rockhall.com for that.
12:39We have an incredible exhibit open right now that's called Revolutionary Women in Music.
12:43It's essentially from South Jersey's own Patti Smith to the present, sort of real strong female rockers
12:50that we're celebrating.
12:51And the museum is open and just cranking.
12:54So fire up the O'smobile, get on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and come down and see us.
13:00Excellent.
13:00All my pals on 72nd Street keep threatening to come out, but they never quite make it.
13:05All right.
13:06Well, we're going to make good on our threat too.
13:08All right, Greg, great to talk to you, man.
13:10Congratulations on another great year and we'll see you soon, okay?
13:14Cheers.
13:14Thanks, everybody.
13:15Greg Harris.
13:17Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
13:19Absolutely.