How hip-hop came to dominate the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Hip-hop isn't exactly rock 'n' roll, but the genre has become a dominant force in the museum that honors the music made famous by Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley.
Why it matters: Outkast and Salt-N-Pepa's inductions this November will continue hip-hop's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame winning streak over the past decade.
It also fuels the Rock Hall's most heated debate over which genres and artists should or shouldn't be honored.
Flashback: Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five became the first hip-hop act inducted in 2007.
The inductions of Run-DMC, Beastie Boys and Public Enemy followed over the next several years.
By the numbers: Things have picked up with 11 more hip-hop artists being inducted since 2016, including this year's inductees.
2023 saw Missy Elliott become the first female rap act to earn induction. That same year, the Rock Hall opened Holla If Ya Hear Me, a huge exhibit celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop.
What they're saying:"The Rock Hall's success in getting hip-hop artists inducted is a reflection of their focus primarily on the genre's biggest names," says Neil Walls, founder of Future Rock Legends, a website covering the Rock Hall.
"Getting inducted in your first year of eligibility is the sign of an undeniable Hall of Fame career, and five of the last six artists to go in that way are from hip-hop," Walls tells Axios.
The other side: That success rate has drawn the ire of "rock" purists who believe the museum should focus on guitar-driven acts.
Yes, but: John Sykes, the chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation who changed Jay-Z's mind, has asserted the name won't change.
"Rather than throwing the name out, it's doing a better job of communicating to people where rock and roll came from and what it's truly about," he told Vulture. "Once they hear it that way, they understand."
What's next: Hip-hop's streak with the Rock Hall will likely slow, Walls believes, pointing to a lack of obvious inductees from the genre in the coming years.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
John Mulaney, Rock Hall of Fame Enthusiast, Breaks Down This Year's Class — and Snubs!
John Mulaney has learned a few things about life from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. This sounds like the setup for a joke. But the comedian, late-night host, and low-key music obsessive has long been fascinated with the Cleveland institution, the artists it deems worthy for inclusion (or continually snubs), and especially the annual induction ceremony that can reunite bands, rekindle old feuds, and cause music nerds to argue endlessly. For example, to the yearly batch of inducted artists who seem deeply uncomfortable with the idea of the ceremony, he says, 'Life is hard, and when someone wants to give you your flowers, don't overthink it. Just accept it. Whatever terrible moment you're imagining with your former bandmate or whoever you might run into there, you're already having it in your head, so you might as well go, and it probably will be better than you think.' More from Rolling Stone Watch Jessica Pratt and Destroyer Perform Together on 'Everybody's Live' John Mulaney Breaks Down the Music Powering 'Everybody's Live' What Do Rock Hall Voters Have Against Mariah Carey, Oasis, and Phish? When Mulaney first broke down all the Rock Hall inductees and snubs for us in 2018, the plan was to make it an annual tradition, à la Billie Eilish's Vanity Fair interview on the same day every year. 'Covid and some personal problems got in the way,' Mulaney deadpans. But now, he's ready to recommit. 'Hey, listen, I'll make this an annual thing now.' Before we get started, does he have any other big takeaways from following the event each year? 'When you're in your twenties, take as many photos of yourself as possible,' Mulaney says. 'You are so good-looking. You are soooo good-looking. All these photos of the Cure, I was like, 'Look at these early shoegazers, so awkward. But they look great. Everyone looks great.'' Here, what Mulaney has to say about each of this year's honored artists — and the ones that didn't make it. Mazel tov, Bad Company. A friend of mine read these to me over the phone a week ago and he accidentally said Badfinger and I almost drove off the expressway. I was so blown away by the power of Apple Corps to get Badfinger into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I know the hits and I like a supergroup in [the Hall]. There's certainly other examples. Who's your favorite supergroup?Let's name some. Traveling Wilburys. Sure. Blind Clapton post-Yardbirds feels like a supergroup. Derek and the Dominos is up for Were there even Dominos? My favorite supergroup song is 'Highwayman' by the Highwaymen. It's an excellent use of each person's personality, in a way that [Traveling Wilburys'] 'Handle With Care' is a great song but it feels like they just divvied up… I mean, no, sorry, that's really well-plotted, actually. But 'Highwayman' is like each of those guys is singing the appropriate backstory for their character and I like that Johnny Cash is going to be on a starship. Bad Company's biggest songs: 'Feel Like Makin' Love,' 'Can't Get Enough,' 'Shooting Star,' 'Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy,' 'Bad Company.' Do any of those songs conjure up any emotion or feeling for you?Well, it's tough. No. What does 'Feel Like Makin' Love' feel like? It feels like walking into a bar I've never been in, like I have a memory of walking into a large pool hall kind of Dazed and Confused-like bar with that playing, but I think I just saw it in movies. I don't think that ever happened. But here's my mission statement: More groups in the Hall, not less. The Mulaney Hall of Fame would induct every group nominated? Why not? Do a whole weekend of ceremony. If it's about the ceremony runtime… Last year, they went more than five hours. That's pretty Steven Van Zandt gets to induct a bunch of 45s? Doesn't he always get a grouping? [Imitates Little Stevie] 'Doo-wop on my corner. Da Moonglows! Da Ink Spots! These were 45 records that changed the way I saw doo-wop that year. This cover of 'Bule Bule' changed the way that block in New Jersey dealt with noise complaints.' I was already psyched for him. Mazel, Chubby Checker. Knowing that it was part novelty I think is great. I'm a big proponent of novelty music. I'm a big proponent of 'Weird Al' getting into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. This is one step closer, though I don't know why they need to be led via steps. 'Weird Al' brought more people to music than is recognized at all. I will, in fact, greatly devalue my coolness by saying [when I was young], it wasn't until 'Smells Like Nirvana' defanged 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' that I could enjoy 'Smells Like Teen Spirit.' It was scary at first. It just was like, 'I'm pretty happy, I'm a kid.' I needed a way in. And after you laugh at 'Smells Like Nirvana,' you go, 'Oh, this is a really good song.' Let's talk about the ballot and the nominating process. So there are 30 people on the nominating committee who draw up all the nominees and around 1,100 people in the industry vote after aren't I on the committee? Is Boz Scaggs on it? He is not. I always thought he was in with that, but that's just based on nothing. Did you have any experience with 'The Twist' or 'Let's Twist Again'?Well, I really appreciate 'Let's twist again like we did last summer.' It's a very funny lyric for a reboot. I really, really like the bald-facedness of 'Let's twist again like we did last summer' — saying, 'Remember we did this song 'The Twist' last year? We're doing it again.' Also, I think 'Let's Twist Again' is a better song than 'The Twist.' I don't think I'm alone in that. Sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound like such a novel idea. Is Chubby Checker still with us? He is. He partnered with New York City two years ago for a with bikers in the lane. Sick. I didn't know we could partner with New York City. You could. Billy Idol did an with the city right before lockdowns in 2020. And people followed his advice because the whole world shut down. I do want to tell you about a 750-word letter Chubby Checker wrote to the Rock Hall in 2002 lamenting his lack of inclusion. It read, in part, 'Before 'Alexander Graham Bell'…no telephone. Before 'Thomas Edison'… no light. Before 'Dr. George Washington Carver'…no oil from seed or cloning of plants. Before 'Henry Ford'…no V8 engine. Before 'Walt Disney'…no animated cartoons. Before Chubby Checker…no 'Dancing Apart to the Beat.' What is 'Dancing Apart to the Beat'? 'Dancing Apart to the Beat' is the dance that we do when we dance apart to the beat of anybody's music and before 'Chubby Checker,' it could not be found!'I love this letter. I love every part of it. I love all the examples leading up to it and I trust him. He ends the letter with, 'Where is my more money and my more fame?'Ohhhh, you buried the lede. I had to build to it.'Where is my more money and my more fame?' Well, you know what? We have quotes at the beginning of each episode of my show and I think we just found the finale's. Bizarrely, I knew his cover of 'With a Little Help from My Friends' and I knew 'Up Where We Belong' and I didn't see [the 1971 Cocker documentary] Mad Dogs and Englishmen till I was in my late twenties. Lorne Michaels told me about it. It wasn't streaming anywhere. It was hard to find when I went looking for it. What did you like about the film specifically?Just how hard that tour was, like Festival Express. Just the hard living of it. And again, this brings me back to Chubby Checker and 'Weird Al.' It's like John Belushi's parody of Joe Cocker brought me to Joe Cocker as well. As a little kid, Cocker was upsetting-looking. He looked like he was in great pain and he looked like he was passing a kidney stone at all times. John Belushi defanging that helped me enjoy it more. And I'm very pro-Joe Cocker. He's not like Stevie Wonder, but he has a bit of that 'I Just Called to Say I Love You' phenomenon of, I sort of knew 'Up Where We Belong' and 'You Are So Beautiful' just as pleasant wedding music. And then you go back and indeed he was a Mad Dog. I kinda thought of Randy Newman's 'You Can Leave Your Hat On' in was a little do you think of the original? Love the take the laughs out. 'Turn on the lights. No, all the lights,' is a very funny line. I've never seen 9 1/2 Weeks, but I would love to have Mickey Rourke on my show. He was just fired from a few weeks ago for making offensive remarks toward Jojo Siwa and another was? Oh, then I retract saying I want to. We'll skip the about, John Mulaney Hasn't Seen '9 ½ Weeks'. But again, here we go and I'm not trying to force a through line but the humor of something [like Newman's original version] is our way in. And there's a Randy Newman connection coming up. I know. It's Lenny Waronker. I thought you might be stumped on not at all. I met Lenny Waronker when Randy was on Everybody's Live; he came. These dudes have known each other since they were three and he's at the gig with him and he's his guy. Their relationship was incredible to see up close. Then I was talking to John Cale [who did A&R for Waronker in the 1970s] after the taping of our show and he goes, 'I love Lenny. I loved all those guys. Everyone at Warner Brothers was very good back then.' It's weird to think of John Cale behind a that's why Cale is so brilliant and is the most relevant, because he produced so many people and was an A&R guy. He didn't do a couple vanity productions. He really invested in new groups and continued to develop and didn't escape into persona. What's interesting about the record business is they'll be like, 'Well, this is the single and we're pushing the single.' And I'm like, 'Isn't it just like people come to whatever song they come to?' Lenny, Randy, and I were talking about standards and practices and lack thereof on Netflix, and I said, 'Have you ever done 'Rednecks' on TV?' and [Randy] goes, 'No.' And I was like, 'Right, that makes sense.' And I said, 'But that's the big hit from that album,' and he goes, 'No, it wasn't a hit.' And Lenny goes, 'The first hit was 'Short People' [three years later].' If you're in the trenches looking at numbers every week, you don't go, 'Yeah. That a lot of people have come to it over the years, doesn't mean it's a hit.' But if Randy had asked to do 'Rednecks' on your show, would you have said yes?No. I think everyone would go, 'Let's not do that.' By the way, let me just be clear: No one asked. It wasn't like I said no to something. Everyone involved is smart. They're incredible and what a great treasure of American music. I love Jack in that way that he has what I love so much about David Byrne: just this desire to innovate and collaborate, be it Loretta Lynn or doing some music for a Maya Rudolph and Martin Short variety show or whatever it is. Meg White hasn't really been seen at all in more than 15 years. The big question is if she shows up. Just things the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is made of. This is no surprise. Such re-emergences into public life is the whole thing of the induction ceremony. Standard stuff. Most folks you see at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction you haven't seen in a while. That's the most fun of it. So do you think she shows up?Yeah, why not? I say 'why not' not trying to cause any controversy. I don't know if there's any issues. I just would say why not. I think the 'why not' is just having not been in the public eye for so long. Is the Rock Hall enough of an event to get her to come out?Yes, it is. Yes, it is. And I'll make the case. Couple examples: Kurt Cobain's mother said when they were inducted, and I'm paraphrasing, 'Kurt would really love this, but he would act like he didn't.' And at the Radiohead induction, which I was at, I think it was Ed O'Brien who said, and I'm paraphrasing again, but this was the spirit of it, 'I wish the other guys were here to see it, because this is a big fucking deal.' And I think it's one of those things you might appreciate when you get there. Your first memories of , I assume, are probably in the mid-Eighties?Yep, The Goonies. It's the way the camera lingers on the TV in Goonies. I just remember being like, 'Well, they're making a moment out of this.' I didn't know if it was a clue to the mystery. It was one of those things where just the very fact, the way the camera hangs on her, I was like, 'Well, this must be someone.' I don't remember when I first heard 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun,' but it's obviously Eighties canon. I found her really funny and I found the whole persona fun and funny and still do. Any other Cyndi songs that you gravitate towards?I love Kinky Boots. I love her whole thing. I can't say I know more than the hits, but they're so singular and were so important for music and music videos that I'm just thrilled. Talk about people that really care about music. And André's career now is so interesting. What a great choice. It's one of those choices where you go, 'Well, let's do half a dozen of those each year.' You mean hip-hop or just groups that are universally beloved?Both. I so admire [André's] pursuit of music. It's just in every direction. And someone not taking the easy road is my favorite thing. I think it's like being a Prince fan. Who isn't a fan of Outkast? Really, really cool. Very cool choice. Very cool to go back and continue to celebrate those early Sub Pop artists and not just look at it as a montage of bands you mention after Nirvana. Kim Thayil how he was looking at as a possible model for what Soundgarden may do. Who could belt like Chris Cornell?I'll nominate Maggie Rogers just because I just had her on and thought she was so great. Do you have a favorite Soundgarden song?Again, I'm a hits guy. I think they're going to play 'Black Hole Sun,' so she'd be great at that. I'm so happy for them. Like Cyndi Lauper, just ubiquitous, especially 'Whatta Man.' Soundtrack of an era. So exciting and a great time in music to go back and revisit and honor. Did they do 'Let's Talk About Sex' on Blossom? Don't even fact-check it. I'm fact-checking, because I don't know the your source here feels they did and let's not even look it up. [Editor's note: He's right. Season Four, Episode 12, in 1993.] Immensely provocative and groundbreaking at the was. This is Tipper Gore central. And it's a great song, too. They're going to be great. Not a ton of knowledge. However, I think my senior year of college, he was very ill and his song 'Keep Me in Your Heart' was very popular with my roommate, Matt Albert, and I. [Matt is] now a pediatric doctor in North Carolina. Then I'm at the Mark Twain awards for David Letterman some years ago and Eddie Vedder played that song and it just was a very full-circle moment. Tons of respect for Warren Zevon. I'm surprised he isn't in already. He's someone that the music business loves, deservedly so. I remember listening to 'Werewolves of London' a lot and thinking about the lyrics and still kind of not understanding what it's about at all and I've never really looked it up. I like that they mentioned Trader Vic's. I always liked that the coolest place was this Polynesian restaurant. The organ on 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' alone. It's incredible how big [session musicians'] contributions are. It's bizarre the amount they affect the success of a track and their lack — and this isn't meant to be controversial — their lack of credit and, through that, profit participation. I'm not criticizing it, I think it's just what it is. Sonny & Cher had every verse of 'The Beat Goes On' and it was just this meandering song and then Carol Kaye, like 11th hour, just lays down [imitates bassline] doom, doom, doom, doom, and you're like, 'OK. So I guess she didn't write it, but you wouldn't know it at all [without her].' I am thrilled with Nicky Hopkins. I'm thrilled with the recognition of session musicians. Andy Samberg and I would really press Lorne a couple of times to have Glen Campbell on. [Kaye played on hundreds of sessions with Campbell.] I'm often wrong, but I thought it would've been great. I think it was when The Smile Sessions came out [in 2011], and getting into what the Wrecking Crew [the legendary group of session musicians that included Kaye] sounded like and just what they contributed was so amazing. I like the documentary a lot, and it's just night and day. It's just like, 'Well, I'm going to take my songs over to the best band in the world that's ever been assembled.' The Hopkins and the Carol Kayes of the world are like, it's not just a nice nod. They are 100 percent essential to these songs. If you think about how you take music in, they get authorship. I think about that with Holland-Dozier-Holland, who are not unknown, but nowhere near as big as the artists they wrote get a good shoutout in a Magnetic Fields song. Do they?Yeah, 'The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure.' Love [The Spinners'] 'Rubberband Man' [written and produced by Bell]. The audience load-in playlist for my Baby J Tour was a lot of Delfonics, Spinners, Thom Bell-adjacent stuff. The O'Jays' 'Stairway to Heaven' was the big song on the lead-up to my arena tour. Let's see. I just want to get this right. Take your had more Number One singles than anyone else? They're from Liverpool. Who has the second most? It's a travesty. I wouldn't even call it snobbery. There's a judgmental aspect to it due to aspects of one's life. I think we have all had our ups and downs in life, but her accomplishment is just unparalleled. It's a no-brainer, but the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame frequently doesn't have a brain. Sorry, they have less than one brain. I don't know much about the Gallaghers. I know what a casual acquaintance of their music would know, which is they're always pissed off about something. I know far more about their constant bitching than I have memories of loving their music. But they get a vote in my mind because they'd be disgruntled during the acceptance speech. You would like to see it just for the theatricality. That is a big part of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: people of low character behaving badly. 'That is a big part of the Rock Hall: people of low character behaving badly.' Is there another group that you don't care about that you want to see in the Hall for the pure spectacle?Oh, man. OK. I mean, oh, my God. Pure spectacle. A lot of them are already in. Help me think a little. Butthole Surfers? Flaming Lips, they're not in, right? They're not in, I think [Wayne Coyne] would pop off. Liam Gallagher did once say, 'It's like putting me in the Rap Hall of Fame and I don't want to be part of anything that mentally disturbed.'Whatever. 'Wonderwall' don't mean shit to me, but I'm not trying to start anything. I remember Soupy Sales' Wikipedia page for a while was just debunking rumors and it was clearly him getting in there and it was like, 'Soupy never told kids to send him a dollar.' I was like, 'Dude, you're teaching me that you've had a lot of difficulties.' When I hear Jimmy Fallon do 'Wonderwall' at karaoke, I don't think, 'Wow, what tortured mind is behind this?' And also, I'll say that I like a difficult public persona very much. This is a crime. I haven't read about your Phish fandom. How deep does it run?I come on board around 1997 at age 14, 15. When I started listening to them, people at the shows told me, 'You really missed it. It's over now.' I think it was after A Live One came out, people were like, 'Well, you didn't see the early years.' How many shows have you been to?My numbers aren't high. Multiple nights at Deer Creek, Alpine Valley, things like that, and then I went two, three years ago. I'd go anytime, I just keep not being able to. Was it difficult to convince them to do the ? No, they were great. We talked about doing a variety of things on the show, but they were on tour and they had their time in Los Angeles and it was the greatest. I thought of it originally as, 'What if they did a play of Seinfeld?' I didn't know what this would be for and then I thought, 'Oh, it would be through the telescope we'd see them living as Seinfeld.' It was going to be an ad for a Broadway show of Seinfeld starring Phish. We made it more palatable, a little. So Phish is a no-brainer for you to get in?Yeah. Phish, String Cheese Incident, moe., Disco Biscuits, Leftover Salmon. On every level, this was hugely important music to us. It really kept bands alive. The idea of a band in 1999 playing fucking guitars, piano, and drums was not always easy to find. In that documentary [Between Me and My Mind about Trey Anastasio], Trey said that Tommy Lee saw them on the cover of Rolling Stone and went, 'Finally, a fucking band,' and the excitement of that. Now, on the business end, these people printed money. They are enormously successful. Most of my life being on the road, I have a real aversion to snubbing people that sell out football stadiums night after night but aren't necessarily propped up by the industry. It's not that the money's important, but whenever the music business has gone up and down and up and down, they have just consistently brought their music to fans at a huge profit. People pay and travel to see Phish at a time when it's hard to get people to click on Spotify. I wonder what it is [that didn't get them inducted]. So many people like Phish; I'm sure so many people on the committee like Phish. I bet it's oversight more than snobbery. The music they introduced my generation to as well was hugely important. I learned to be eclectic from them. They were always getting compared to the Grateful Dead, but they had this whole world of influences that was really fun to pick up on and cross-check … Getting back into the Talking Heads. Getting into Zappa. That was all them. They also made you want to go to concerts. They're just good for music and they have been for decades. People that keep it at arm's length and didn't want to get into it because they thought it was their friend with the hemp choker in high school or whatever, we're not dumb. They fucking rock. It's not all Gamehendge [the fictional setting for numerous Phish songs], if that bothers you. I love it, but if that bothers you, it's not all Gamehendge. It's not all mythology and everyone in the crowd knows when to yell. The songs are great, we're not stupid people. Do you have a preference between Joy Division and New Order?Both are extremely personal to me. During my worst drug times, I remember very bad moments and there's two lines in 'Disorder' [that go] 'Lights are flashing, cars are crashing, getting frequent now.' I remember just thinking about those lines when it was at its worst. That song, when I listened to it, I'm like, 'This is what it feels like when something you might've set in motion is accelerating out of your control.' So that's a little dark tangent. But then 'Atmosphere.' What's funny about 'Atmosphere' when I listen to that is, I was born right as this was coming out, and I always wondered if I was ever an infant in a taxi cab in Chicago when 'Atmosphere' was released. 'Leave Me Alone' is my favorite New Order song and that song, 'Ceremony,' and the rest are just songs I've listened to for 20, 30 years all the time. And I think about [my wife] Olivia with that line in 'Temptation,' 'Oh, you've got blue eyes / Oh, you've got grey eyes / Oh, you've got green eyes' because Olivia has really beautiful eyes. I have no opinion on the Black Crowes. Are you being diplomatic? No. I genuinely have no opinion. Do you remember when their big album came out or this was not in your wheelhouse at all?What's fun about music is you can be obsessed with a genre and not know a band at all. My blind spots are significant. That's fair. Maybe we just keep the one line, 'I have no opinion,' and that's it.I have no opinion on the Black Crowes. If that's the pull quote, we've got a viral story. 'I have no opinion on the Black Crowes. If that's the pull quote, we've got a viral story.' So Fred [Armisen] is a big Billy Idol fan and I've been trying to get more into it. I know 'White Wedding,' and he has real significance for me as this sort of MTV thing, but I'm ignorant of the rest of him. I think he means a lot to a lot of people. I think a big [thing] is some of the Hall is [about] teaching the audience and some of it is honoring the audience. But it should never be honoring the nominating committee. I am ignorant of them. Well, those are all the snubs. We haven't gone through the biggest snub. Who's that?The standing snub. The standing snub?Sonic Youth. Once again, It's been a pleasure to talk about all these inductees and nominees. Once again, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has completely disappointed the universe and all music fans by not inducting Sonic Youth. I think Smashing Pumpkins not being in is also a crime. Actually, you did mention that in 2018. You said the Hall had an 'anti-Chicago bias.'[Laughs hysterically.] Did I? with the headline, 'Is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Anti-Chicago?' and subhead, 'John Mulaney thinks so, but in reality, we may just punch below our weight as a rock town.''But in reality.' A lot of things I said in 2018 could be buffeted with, 'But in reality.' 'But in reality, John's a little off.' They said, 'Is it possible there's some truth to Mulaney's charge?'I like that they don't say, 'Well, John's just misguided and might be on speed.' They're like, 'Is there some truth? We won't say no,' but there's a ton of Chicago bands that have been inducted. A great way to clear this up would be to give the Musical Excellence Award to Steve Albini. Let's just give that to him next year. I actually think that would be a great decision all around. I doubt they really have an anti-Chicago bias. They're very blues-friendly. And white people loving the blues is, I think, the mission statement of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and that's most of Chicago. I think we've gone through do it next year. This will be called our annual Billie Eilish conversation. Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Forbes
16 hours ago
- Forbes
Rocker Paul Rodgers' Near-Death Operation: 50/50 Chance Of Survival
Paul Rodgers performs during KFOX 98.5's Greg's Kihncert at Shoreline Amphitheatre on July 31, 2003 in Mountain View, California. (Photo by) In Part 1 of our interview series with classic rocker Paul Rodgers, we covered his impending induction into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, an amusing anecdote from a Bad Company tour in Spain, his initial thoughts on the great super-group Cream, the first time he heard his own song on the radio, where the name Bad Company came from and his work with the not-for-profit Adopt The Arts. Here we look at his medical situation with a number of recent strokes, band manger Peter Grant and Led Zeppelin, his memoirs and epitaph, and more. Following are edited excerpts from a longer phone conversation. Jim Clash: You've had such an interesting life. Ever think about writing a book about it? Rodgers: In fact, I'm working on my memoirs now, about four-fifths of it done. I have a great co-writer. I don't really like talking about myself, blowing my own trumpet, toot, toot, you know. But he makes it so easy, asks the right questions. I speak with him on a weekly basis. We've done this for eight months now, and the book should be out next year. Clash: You've had a number of strokes over the past few years, no? NEW YORK, NEW YORK - Jimmy Page at the 38th Annual Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony at Barclays Center on November 03, 2023. (Photo byfor The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ) Rodgers: I certainly have. I had 11 TIA's [Transient Ischaemic Attacks], and three major strokes, the last one just last year. It's hereditary, runs in my family unfortunately. My father passed at 60, likely due to a stroke. I'm 75, so I've had a lot more life than he did. I lost my ability to comprehend certain things. I had to learn to use a fork, spoon, and all of that again. I didn't even know what a guitar was. Hyperbarics and a program called MERT - Magnetic E-Resonance Therapy - helped me get back my language and singing functions. They also cleaned out my left carotid artery, a major surgery with only a 50/50 chance of survival. I was completely on life support then, very strange to come back from because your circulation system has to relearn itself. But I'm doing very well now, thank you. I even put out an album, 'Midnight Rose,' my first since 1999. Clash: Sounds like you almost died during the operation. Rodgers: When they were wheeling me off to surgery, my wife said, "Now you better come back to me." She tells me that just after the operation I said that I had the option to leave this dimension, but thought, "I can't do that, Cynthia will kill me." I can't remember any of it, though [laughs]. Clash: When you do pass on, what do you want your epitaph to be? Rodgers: My friend Paul Cossoff's was, "All Right Now," which I thought was rather interesting. For me I think, "Peace At Last." Peter Grant, Manager of Led Zeppelin, in his office, 9th October 1970. (Photo by Eric Harlow/Mirrorpix via Getty Images) Clash: Your recollections of Peter Grant? Rodgers: He was a great guy, a wonderful manager. He had all of the contacts. But he never interfered with the music itself. He just protected us, looked after the contracts and so on. We found ourselves on a roller-coaster. We had a Vickers Viscount, four Rolls-Royce engines, limos to get on the tarmac to the plane. It was crazy. The association with Led Zeppelin [Grant was also its manager] did not hurt. Peter was also an immense guy, an ex-wrestler. I believe he was a Romani gypsy, but I never asked him. Clash: Okay, what's Jimmy Page like? You worked with him in The Firm. Rodgers: Jimmy's amazing, as a person and as a guitarist. In The Firm, he could lift the whole band, the whole audience and the whole auditorium, way up into the stars. When I was up on stage, I would be just be amazed at what he was doing. Fantastic.
Los Angeles Times
17 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
How do you get kicked off ‘Love Island' before the love begins? Yulissa Escobar shows us
Want to succeed in reality show love? It might be best to keep your public life free of racial slurs. 'Love Island USA' contestant Yulissa Escobar, whose use of the N-word on a couple of podcasts surfaced over the weekend before the show's rocky premiere Tuesday, was there and then gone in a heartbeat. A mere blip in love-competition TV's continuum of smokin' hot contestants. She used the N-word casually and naturally in conversation, per video posted on Reddit and TMZ. She did not appear to be using it with disparaging intent — but the word is still racist on its face. 'They're gonna get cancelled so bad and not like I care but they should be protecting them from mass cancellation like this by not casting them in the first place,' one Reddit user said. Plus, Escobar had been partnered on the show with contestant Ace Greene, who is Black. Here's how that selection went, according to Vulture: 'The last to choose is Yulissa. I get the sense that someone once called her a 'real firecracker' and she's been trying to live up to that ever since. She has clearly been waiting for an opportunity to cause trouble, so she aims her lips directly at Ace and they lock in. This goes on for a while.' Before 'Love Island USA' even premiered, fans and haters on social media were making plans to vote Escobar off as fast as they could. But the show beat them to it. 'Welcome back to 'Love Island USA,'' narrator Iain Stirling said 18 minutes into the second episode of Season 7, which streamed Wednesday. 'Yulissa has left the villa.' No other details were given. 'I can confirm Yulissa has left the villa,' a representative of the show told The Times on Thursday. No other details were given there either. So viewers are left to connect the dots on their own — but seriously, those are some pretty huge, flashing-neon dots. Nobody needs that kind of attention, right? At least nobody in the reality TV business does. The process to audition for 'Love Island USA' seems fairly intense, with applicants asked off the bat for their social media usernames and quizzed as to whether they have an OnlyFans page or have ever done porn (sorry, they call it 'Adult Film'). The casting company also wants to know whether prospects have ever cheated on anyone, the location and meaning of any tattoos, whether they have any celebrity friends and whether their parents are still together. There's also this: 'Is there any other information we should be made aware of concerning your application (including anything in your past that may attract negative press or publicity)? If YES, please provide details.' Looks as if Escobar didn't think her language was going to elicit negative publicity? But hey, Greene — who does have tattoos! — is now free to find fresh talent from among his remaining cast members. As for that rocky premiere, 'Love Island USA' fans got heated Tuesday when streamer Peacock posted on social media one minute after the planned showtime, 'WE GOT A TEXT! Tonight's episode will be slightly delayed. But it is worth the wait ... Stay tuned!' A full 40 minutes later, Season 7 got underway.
