Following the announcement of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 2021 inductees, Dave Grohl, who’s being inducted with Foo Fighters, has commented on how “important” and “encouraging” the full lineup is.
In addition to Foo Fighters, the Class of 2021 includes the Go-Go’s, Jay-Z, Carole King, Todd Rundgren and Tina Turner. Artists such as Randy Rhoads, Kraftwerk and LL Cool J are also receiving other awards of recognition.
“The list of artists inducted this year is very important, and encouraging,” Grohl told Rolling Stone. “Tina Turner, obviously, deserves everything that she’s been awarded with. And Carole King is a big one, and the Go-Go’s. To see so many women inducted this year is impressive and encouraging.”
Speaking of impressive, this year’s ceremony will see Grohl inducted into the Hall for the second time, after Nirvana were members of the Class of 2014. The 52-year-old rocker is now among a small list of musicians who have been inducted multiple times. Eric Clapton was the youngest artist to have achieved the milestone, and he’s actually been inducted three times.
The Foo Fighters frontman is actually on the Hall’s nominating committee, so he sees how a lot of the process works behind the scenes too.
“I walk away from every one of those meetings having learned something new. I consider every voice on the committee a legitimate voice,” he explained. “And it’s very diverse. It’s not just a bunch of rock musicians sitting around discussing whether your favorite ’80s hair metal band should be in or not. It’s fun. I like doing it. But of course, there’s a logjam of artists that I think should be inducted right away.”
Of those artists he’s pitched to receive nominations are groups such as Bad Brains and Devo.
“My Devo pitch is basically, ‘When your band name becomes a derogatory term that is being screamed at you while you’re being chased down the street by a pickup truck full of rednecks, then you deserve to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.’”
The rock and metal community seems to be most taken aback by the fact that Iron Maiden and Rage Against the Machine were snubbed by the Hall. President and CEO Greg Harris defended the Hall and the Class of 2021 by stating that they do, in fact, acknowledge metal.
“We celebrate all forms of rock ‘n’ roll. They were nominated; we nominated Maiden, Judas Priest have been nominated, we put Def Leppard in,” he said. “Those that are nominated, over 80 percent 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 16 artists on it. They just can’t all go in.”
No doubt Ghrol and Co deserve a nod into the Hall of Fame, but Dave’s comments continue to cement his reputation as the nicest man in rock and roll!
