Awards
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“This is like the best Wednesday ever,” Sheryl Crow says over the phone on the morning the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced she was one of seven performers getting inducted into the Rock Hall’s Class of 2023 this fall.
The singer-songwriter has been eligible for the Rock Hall for a few years but finds herself joining the club after her first appearance on the ballot – which she says was a genuine surprise. “I had talked myself down: ‘Look, you’re not gonna get in the first year, but it’s really cool you’re nominated.’ So I have to say it’s a bit of a shock.”
Crow got the good news yesterday when she was busy rooting for someone else’s success. “I was at my kid’s baseball game, keeping it real, trying not to scream at the entire ballpark, ‘I’m in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame!’ I’m just trying to stay regular mom and not have my head blow up.”
The 2023 induction is particularly meaningful for the rootsy hitmaker given that Willie Nelson – whom she hails as “one of the greatest people to ever walk this planet” — will find himself inducted alongside her come Nov. 3 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
“Even if I hadn’t been inducted this year, I would’ve been there this year for him,” says Crow, who just days ago performed as part of the country trailblazer’s two-night 90th birthday concert celebration. “I tell him all the time and I can’t tell him enough: he’s my favorite person to sing with and he’s also one of my favorite people on the planet. I’m so blessed to know him. He’s uniquely divine as far as I’m concerned. It’s as much of an honor to be there with him as it is to be in it.”
Of the seven new inductees, Crow and Rage Against the Machine are the mostly traditionally ‘rock’ acts in the Class of 2023. The institution has, in recent years, started to expand the sometimes narrow perimeters that define rock music to include artists more commonly associated with genres like pop, hip-hop and country.
“The rock canon can encompass what we call other genres of music — at the end of the day, it’s just music,” she insists, defining rock as “music that sticks its neck out to move and motivate people.” And for her, Nelson – a country music rebel turned elder statesman who only appeared on the ballot for the first time this year after decades of eligibility – exemplifies that.
“He’s a person that, in his unique way, stands up for what he believes in. For me, he sums up rock and roll – he is exactly who he is when he walks on stage,” Crow says. “I think we’ve all cut our teeth on what he’s written, and he’s written some of the most important songs in the American catalog.”
As for her own acclaimed (and commercially successful) catalog, Crow says it doesn’t feel like it’s been 30 years since her debut album, Tuesday Night Music Club, and its smash single “All I Wanna Do” propelled her career into the stratosphere.
“I just wanted to pay my bills. I just wanted to be a working musician that wasn’t waiting tables on the side,” she recalls of the early ‘90s. “I never really thought about how far I was going to take it. It was more, ‘What’s the next thing I’m going to write’ and ‘What’s the next thing I want to say?’ I really have not looked at any of it as goal oriented. I know it sounds weird and a lot of people won’t believe that, but my philosophy has always been to be into the process.”
As for what’s next, Crow says she’s going to have a hell of a time writing a Rock Hall speech that covers the “many people” who have helped her along the way. And that journey is far from done. “I’m still learning. I love the art of producing; I love learning how to play different instruments. It’s still fun and interesting to me and I still feel like my best work is ahead of me.”
Sheryl Crow’s selection for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 2023 class comes nearly 28 years after she won a Grammy as best new artist. She is just the fifth artist to take both of these honors.
The Grammys and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame once seemed to be operating in different worlds, with the Grammys, in their early years, favoring traditional pop and jazz, and the Rock Hall long favoring guitar-based rock. But both organizations have moved to the middle in recent years.
For many years, just three artists had achieved both of these feats – a Grammy win for best new artist and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — but in the last two years, two more artists have joined the list.
With the Rock Hall becoming more open to a wider range of sounds, it’s not hard to picture several more past best new artist Grammy winners one day being inducted. Bette Midler, Natalie Cole, Cyndi Lauper (who was nominated this year but didn’t get in) and Mariah Carey would all seem to have at least a reasonable chance, and in some cases, a very good chance of making the Rock Hall.
Artists first become eligible for the Rock Hall 25 years after releasing their first record. So over time the artists who won best new artist after 1998 will also become eligible for the Rock Hall. Over the next 10 years that could bring in Lauryn Hill, Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys, Maroon 5, John Legend, Carrie Underwood and Amy Winehouse.
While we wait to see which of them make it, here are the five artists who both won a Grammy for best new artist and are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Grammy years shown are the years of the ceremonies at which the awards were presented.
Bobby Darin
Best New Artist: 1959
Rock Hall: 1990
Notes: Darin was just 23 when he became the first Grammy winner for best new artist. His sleek “Mack the Knife” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks and won the Grammy for record of the year. Darin, whose other hits ranged from the suave “Beyond the Sea” to the folk-shaded ballad “If I Were a Carpenter,” died of heart failure in 1973 at age 37.
The Beatles
Best New Artist: 1965
Rock Hall: 1988
Notes: The Grammys were still coming to terms with rock and roll in 1965, but The Beatles had made such an explosive impact there could have been no other choice for best new artist. The Fab Four had two other Big Four nominations that year — “I Want to Hold Your Hand” for record of the year and “A Hard Day’s Night” for song of the year. The Beatles, of course, grew with virtually every release. They are the only act in Grammy history to receive album of the year nominations in five consecutive years. They won in 1968 for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and probably should have won a couple more for Revolver and Abbey Road. All four Beatles are also represented in the Rock Hall with their solo careers.
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Best New Artist: 1970
Rock Hall: 1997
Notes: In addition to CSN winning best new artist, Crosby, Stills & Nash was up for album of the year. They were nominated again in that category the following year with Déjà vu, this time joined by Neil Young. All three members of CSN are double inductees in the Rock Hall. Crosby is also in with The Byrds, Stills with Buffalo Springfield and Nash with The Hollies.
Carly Simon
Best New Artist: 1972
Rock Hall: 2022
Notes: Simon was the first woman to receive both of these honors. Simon won best new artist on the strength of her haunting ballad “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be,” a top 10 hit on the Hot 100 in 1971. She reached her zenith in 1973 when her single “You’re So Vain” topped the Hot 100 (and received record and song of the year nods) and her album No Secrets topped the Billboard 200.
Sheryl Crow
Best New Artist: 1995
Rock Hall: 2023
Notes: Crow is the second woman to receive both of these honors. In the year she won for best new artist, she also won record of the year for her frisky smash “All I Wanna Do.” That song was also nominated for song of the year. While “All I Wanna Do” was poppy, Crow has also had hits that showed her rock and country leanings.
With Willie Nelson’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year, 30 years after he was selected for the Country Music Hall of Fame, 16 artists or executives have been chosen to join both Halls.
Nelson, 90, is one of only three of these double (Rock and Country) inductees who is still living. The others are Brenda Lee, 78, and Dolly Parton, 77. Three double inductees – Johnny Cash, The Everly Brothers and Sam Phillips — lived to see both of their inductions, though they have since died.
Nelson, Parton and the late Jerry Lee Lewis have joined the list of double inductees in the past year.
The roster of double honorees includes 13 male artists or executives (the exec being Sun Records founder Phillips); two female artists (Lee and Parton); and one duo (the Everly Brothers).
Bob Wills was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame as a solo artist but was inducted into the Rock Hall as the leader of Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys.
Impressively, singer, songwriter and guitarist Jimmie Rodgers was in the inaugural class in both Halls. He was one of the first three people inaugurated into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961 and one of the 16 initial inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. Rodgers, nicknamed The Singing Brakeman, was just 35 when he died of a pulmonary hemorrhage brought on by tuberculosis in 1933. (He is unrelated to the recording and TV star also named Jimmie Rodgers who had a string of pop and country hits in the late ’50s.)
Floyd Cramer, a top session musician who recorded such crossover hits of his own as “Last Date” and “San Antonio Rose,” is the only person who was inducted into both the Country and Rock Halls of Fame in the same year (2003). Unfortunately, the pianist didn’t live to see this multi-genre appreciation; he died in 1997.
Like Cramer, Chet Atkins also had some hit recordings, but his main contributions were behind-the-scenes as a studio guitarist, producer and record executive (for RCA).
Here’s a list, in alphabetical order, of everyone who has been inducted into both of these Halls of Fame. We show the year each person was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame (CM HOF); the year each was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (R&R HOF); their highest-charting hit on what is now called Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart (which originated as Hot C&W Sides in October 1958); and, finally, the year of death for those who are no longer with us.
Note: Many of these acts had hits that pre-dated the introduction of Hot C&W Sides. The hit tallies shown here and the identification of the artists’ biggest hits are for the period starting in October 1958 only.
Chet Atkins
Image Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/GI
Inducted CM HOF: 1973
Inducted R&R HOF: 2002
Top country hit: the instrumental “Yakety Axe” (No. 4 in 1965)
Died: 2001 (age 77)
Johnny Cash
Inducted CM HOF: 1980
Inducted R&R HOF: 1992
Top country hit: “Ring of Fire” (seven weeks at No. 1 in the summer of 1963). Cash had nine No. 1 hits between “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town” in February 1959 and “One Piece at a Time” in May 1976.
Died: 2003 (age 71)
Ray Charles
Inducted CM HOF: 2021
Inducted R&R HOF: 1986 (inaugural class)
Top country hit: “Seven Spanish Angels” (with Willie Nelson) No. 1 for one week in March 1985
Died: 2004 (age 73)
Floyd Cramer
Inducted CM HOF: 2003
Inducted R&R HOF: 2003
Top country hit: the instrumental hit “San Antonio Rose” (No. 8 in 1961)
Died: 1997 (age 64)
The Everly Brothers
Image Credit: Keystone/Hulton Archive/GI
Inducted CM HOF: 2001
Inducted R&R HOF: 1986 (inaugural class)
Top country hit: “(‘Til I Kissed You)” (No. 8 in 1959)
Died: Phil: 2014 (age 74); Don: 2021 (age 84)
Johnny Gimble
Inducted CM HOF: 2018
Inducted R&R HOF: 1999 (as early influence with Bob Wills & His Texas Cowboys)
Top country hit: “One Fiddle, Two Fiddle”/“San Antonio Rose” (both by Ray Price with Johnny Gimble & The Texas Swing Band, No. 70 in 1983)
Died: 2015 (age 88)
Brenda Lee
Inducted CM HOF: 1997
Inducted R&R HOF: 2002
Top country hit: “Big Four Poster Bed” (No. 4 in 1974)
Jerry Lee Lewis
Inducted CM HOF: 2022
Inducted R&R HOF: 1986 (inaugural class)
Top country hit: “Chantilly Lace” (No. 1 for three weeks in the spring of 1972). Lewis had four No. 1 hits between “To Make Love Sweeter for You” in March 1969 and “Chantilly Lace.”
Died: 2022 (age 87)
Bill Monroe
Inducted CM HOF: 1970
Inducted R&R HOF: 1997
Top country hit: “Gotta Travel On” (credited to Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys, No. 15 in 1959).
Died: 1996 (age 84)
Willie Nelson
Inducted CM HOF: 1993
Inducted R&R HOF: 2013
Top country hit: Toby Keith with Willie Nelson’s “Beer for My Horses” (No. 1 for six weeks in the summer of 2003). Nelson had 20 No. 1 hits between “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” in October 1975 and “Beer for My Horses.”
Dolly Parton
Image Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/GI
Inducted CM HOF: 1999
Inducted R&R HOF: 2022
Top country hit: “Here You Come Again” (No. 1 for five weeks in December 1977). Parton has had 25 No. 1 hits, from “Joshua” in February 1971 to “When I Get Where I’m Going” (by Brad Paisley with Dolly Parton) in March 2006.
Sam Phillips
Inducted CM HOF: 2001
Inducted R&R HOF: 1986 (inaugural class)
Top country hit: not a recording artist
Died: 2003 (age 80)
Elvis Presley
Inducted CM HOF: 1998
Inducted R&R HOF: 1986 (inaugural class)
Top country hits: “Moody Blue” and “Way Down” (both in 1977) and the posthumous release “Guitar Man” (1981). All three logged a single week at No. 1.
Died: 1977 (age 42)
Jimmie Rodgers
Inducted CM HOF: 1961 (inaugural class)
Inducted R&R HOF: 1986 (inaugural class)
Top country hit: none since 1958
Died: 1933 (age 35)
Hank Williams
Inducted CM HOF: 1961 (inaugural class)
Inducted R&R HOF: 1987
Top country hit: “There’s a Tear in My Beer” (by Hank Williams, Jr. with Hank Williams, Sr., No. 7 in 1989)
Died: 1953 (age 29)
Bob Wills
Inducted CM HOF: 1968
Inducted R&R HOF: 1999 (with Bob Wills and His Texas Cowboys, which also included Tommy Duncan, Leon McAuliffe, Johnny Gimble, Joe “Jody” Holley, Tiny Moore, Herb Remington, Eldon Shamblin, and Al Stricklin).
Top country hit: “Heart to Heart Talk” (by Bob Wills with Tommy Duncan and the Texas Playboys, No. 5 in 1960)
Died: 1975 (age 70)
Some will cheer the diversity, in every sense of the word, of the new class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, one that includes Willie Nelson, Missy Elliott, Rage Against the Machine and The Spinners. Others will see that it as a sign that the Hall has lost its way and its focus.
John Sykes, who has been chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation since Jan. 1, 2020, has an answer to the naysayers: “I really didn’t change the rules. I went back and followed them.”
It all comes down to the meaning of the term rock and roll. Sykes contends that that term represents the amalgam of rhythm & blues, country and gospel that transformed popular music in the 1950s. He says that many confuse that term with the narrower “rock,” which he sees as just one element, albeit an important one, in “rock and roll.”
So, while some will say the Rock Hall should mostly be reserved for the likes of The White Stripes, Soundgarden, Warren Zevon and Iron Maiden, all of whom came up short in this year’s balloting, and will see this year’s class as a hodgepodge, Sykes sees it as an exciting return to the true meaning of rock and roll. The news announcement for this year’s Rock Hall inductees includes this definition of rock and roll which you can bet Sykes helped draft – “rock & roll is a spirit that is inclusive and ever-changing.”
Sykes addresses this topic with the deep knowledge of a musicologist and the fervor of a man on a mission. This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
When you became the chairman did you look at it and say, ‘This has to evolve or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is going to become a relic’?
When I came in, I was seeing that some people were mistaking rock and roll for rock. Rock is a part of rock and roll, but rock and roll was never one sound. It was an amalgam of R&B, gospel and country. So, I saw an opportunity to really look back to the original genesis of rock and roll and trace it to the present, which is where hip-hop and R&B and the music that’s moving culture today all came from. I really didn’t change the rules. I went back and followed them.
Six of the first 10 [performer] inductees [in 1986] were Black, and the following year Hank Williams was inducted and then Johnny Cash [1992] and then Brenda Lee [2002]. Really, all roads lead back to 1955 and the creation and explosion of rock and roll. All I did was go back to the original definition and then trace it today – finding the artists that are moving culture and moving young America.
If you look at rock and roll, it’s not one sound, it’s a spirit that moved teenagers in ’55. It basically drove adults crazy, drove the government crazy, drove the church crazy and that’s exactly what hopefully the music that’s moving culture today is doing [chuckles].
Some will say that the Rock Hall is struggling to find its new identity and purpose.
It’s kind of a mixed bag. This class of inductees is a perfect case for really the diverse sounds that make up rock and roll. I wouldn’t say we’re struggling. I would say we’re diversifying. We’re seeing that all these sounds can live together. It’s not like rock is no longer getting in. Foo Fighters got in two years ago. This year, Rage Against the Machine is right next to the first female hip-hop artist who has ever been inducted, Missy Elliott. I’m excited and proud of this diverse collection of artists.
Summarize the voting process.
What happens is the nominating committee’s list of nominees goes out to the general voting body of 1,200 people, which is made up of past inductees. We are constantly updating every year to make sure we evolve with the music because we need voters in their 30s and 40s who were 15 years old when hip-hop began to really explode in the early ‘90s in America.
Do you know who the seven performer inductees will be before you settle on the honorees in the other three categories [musical influence award, musical excellence award and Ahmet Ertegun Award]?
We do it side-to-side. We monitor the performers vote and we do watch to see if there’s anything we need to balance.
Chaka Khan had been on the ballot in the performer category seven times – counting four times as the lead singer of Rufus and Chaka Khan – without being voted in. This year she gets in through the musical excellence award.
Sometimes, not often, an artist just doesn’t connect with the general voting body for whatever reason. That was the case with Chaka, and before that with LL Cool J and Judas Priest. So, the musical excellence award gives us a chance to [rectify that]. It’s the same sized plaque on the wall. To us as a Hall, each has contributed to the growth and relevance of rock and roll.
How many people are on those committees in the other categories?
Seven. I’m the tie-breaker, but I’ve never had to break a tie. 80%-90% of the time it’s unanimous. This year, it was unanimous.
When I took over the job four years ago, I built the committee with the sole purpose of having a diverse group of voters who are aware not only of where music has been but where music is going. The key factor is to make sure we’ve got the right people who understand the music and artists that are up for induction.
[Since artists become eligible 25 years after their first recording], this year if your first record was in 1998, you’re eligible. That’s not 1967 or 1955. 1998 feels like yesterday. We have to have a committee that understands not only the artists of the past – because we’ll never turn our backs on the artist of the past – but also the artists who are eligible today.
Willie Nelson has been eligible since at least 1987, but this was his first time on the ballot and he got in.
He had one of the highest vote totals in the history of the Hall of Fame. He scored a huge number. It reflects too how the voting understands that rock and roll is not a single sound. It’s an attitude and if anyone has attitude, it’s Willie Nelson.
Even before you took over four years ago, just as a member of the nominating committee for 28 years, had you been thinking that the Rock Hall really has to evolve?
Yes, I definitely thought that way and I think others on the nominating committee did too, especially Jon Landau, who ran the committee for 30 years. Before I even started, he began looking at hip-hop and the importance of that genre as being one of the corner posts of rock and roll. I can’t take all the credit myself.
Rock and roll started out being very diverse and I think what happened in the ’70s and ’80s, it somehow became a little bit more focused on rock, which is an integral part of rock and roll, but not the only one. We’ve expanded in the last eight years on the nominating committee.
When I came in, I really focused on that and also focused on women, who have had such an impact. Prior to 2019, about 14%-15% of the inductees were women. In the last five years, it has been almost 25%. We’re not there yet, but we’re seeing the inductees class evolve not only in sound but genre.
That’s the spirit of rock and roll: Rock and roll is constantly changing and evolving. For me, one of the greatest moments of my time at the Hall of Fame is [two years ago] when Jay-Z, one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time, held up his award and said, ‘Now that’s rock and roll.’ He understands that rock and roll was dangerous and rebellious in 1955 and that’s exactly what hip-hop has been and is today. It’s breaking the rules. It upsets parents. It upsets the establishment. Those are all reasons why hip-hop is a welcome member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
I take this job seriously and I’m doing my best to keep it evolving so we can keep it relevant.
What kind of reaction do you think this year’s inductees will get?
We always get a lot of different feedback because these decisions are very subjective. There will be people who say that was great or that was horrible. [That feedback] goes with the job. I think we’re doing the right thing. Every single one of those artists on that list deserves to be in the Hall and that’s all that matters to me.
Al Kooper terms himself “quite surprised and amused” to learn he’s been selected for a “musical excellence award” at the 2023 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Nov. 3 in his birthplace of Brooklyn.
Kooper joins frequent Rock Hall nominee Chaka Khan and Elton John’s lyricist Bernie Taupin in the category, which was introduced during 2000 as the sideman award and renamed during 2010. Previous recipients have included Ringo Starr, Leon Russell, Billy Preston, LL Cool J, Nile Rodgers and Judas Priest.
“I wasn’t aware of that at all, actually,” Koper told Billboard from his current home in Boston. “So it’s flattering. I don’t have a plethora of awards.” In 2008, however, the multi-instrumentalist was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, and seven years prior he received an Honorary Doctor of Music from the Berklee College of Music, where he taught songwriting and record production.
Kooper, 79, has long been considered one of the Rock Hall’s great slights given his voluminous contributions — starting as a member of the Royal Teens and then co-writing the hits “This Diamond Ring” for Gary Lewis and the Playboys and “I Must Be Seeing Things” for Gene Pitney. “I’ve lived a long live and I’ve done a lot of stuff — and I was also lucky in how things fell for me,” Kooper noted.
That luck played out during June 1965 sessions in New York where Kooper found himself creating the organ riff for Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone.” “I would just call it ballsy,” Kooper recalled with a laugh. “I was invited to the session and I went out and sat down at the organ. I wasn’t invited to play. (Producer) Tom Wilson said, ‘OK, this is Take 2…Hey, what are you doing out there?!’ Once I sat down, I just started playing.” The session led to an association that included playing live with Dylan — including at that summer’s notorious Newport Folk Festival appearance — and recording on several of his albums.
Kooper went on to join the Blues Project in 1965 and then formed Blood, Sweat & Tears in 1967, which he left after just one album (Child Is Father to the Man) over creative differences. “It was a band I put together and then they kicked me out of it, that’s how I look at it,” Kooper said with a laugh. “I was sort of surprised by how big they got, sort of instantly — but not when I was in it.” As a record executive with Columbia, Kooper helmed projects such as Super Session with Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills and The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper. He had a record label called Sounds of the South, through MCA, through which he signed Lynyrd Skynyrd and produced its first three albums.
Kooper also produced Don Ellis, the Tubes and Frankie & Johnny and released 11 solo albums. He’s played on sessions for the Rolling Stones, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Roy Orbison, the Who, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, B.B. King, Bo Diddley, Neil Diamond, Rita Coolidge and more, and he scored the 1980s TV series Crime Story and the 1970 film The Landlord. He also served as the musical director of the Rock Bottom Remainders, the all-authors band.
Kooper documented many of his experiences in his colorful 1977 memoir Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards: Memoirs of a Rock ‘n’ Roll Survivor, as well as in the continuing podcast Koopercast.
Kooper, who considers himself “housebound” (“As I got older I just wasn’t as interested in going out”), maintains a recording studio in his basement and continues to work on new music. His latest project is a career-spanning four-CD set of “everything that didn’t come out”; he’s currently working on getting the rights to all the material and has not determined a release date.
Kooper claims to be unaware of the online and social media campaigns pushing for his inclusion in the Rock Hall. He isn’t thinking about the induction ceremony yet, either, and said his attendance in November “depends on my health.”
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced the inductees for its 2023 class this morning (May 3). Seven of the 14 performers nominated for this year were officially welcomed into the Rock Hall, along with six more artists and execs via the honorary awards — including two recipients of the Musical Influence Award, three of the Musical Excellence Award and one of the Ahmet Ertegun Award.
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This year’s honorees (and those left behind) largely fall in line with trends we’ve seen from the Rock Hall’s last handful of induction classes — but there are a handful of exceptions, as well as some examples of the museum’s standards perhaps changing faster than we even anticipated. Here are some of the more unexpected revelations from this year’s class.
SNUB: The White Stripes
Whoops: The artist we predicted as the most likely inductee among the 2023 nominees was nowhere to be found among the names announced this morning. Detroit garage rock duo The White Stripes, who became one of the biggest and most critically acclaimed rock acts of the ’00s, seemed like a bulls-eye pick for Rock Hall traditionalists — particularly given their own obvious reverence for the kind of rock history the museum tends to honor. But Jack and Meg White’s snub in their first year nominated perhaps indicates that the target has moved somewhat for Rock Hall voters in recent years.
It’s just the Stripes’ first year of eligibility, so it’s pretty likely they’ll be back on the ballot in years to come, and may still have a good chance of getting in. The last rock band who missed the cut after seeming like this clear a slam dunk for first-year induction was Radiohead, who lost out in 2018 and then were welcomed in the very next year. But it’s getting pretty clear that dead-center rock acts who simply feel like obvious Rock & Roll Hall of Famers can no longer be considered shoo-ins for induction — at least not in their first try.
SURPRISE: The Spinners
At the other pole of our February predictions was R&B quintet The Spinners, about whom we said, “The songs hold up, but the group itself likely remains a little too anonymous for inclusion — even on its fourth nomination.” Well, the voters disagreed this time around, as the ’70s soul hitmakers did indeed get through the Rock Hall’s doors on their fourth time out — making them the first vocal group to be inducted since The “5” Royales were brought in as an Early Influence in 2015, and the first to be voted in as a performer since Little Anthony & The Imperials in 2009.
It’s hard to know what specifically the Spinners owe their induction to — though certainly, no group with classic hits as timeless as “I’ll Be Around,” “Could It Be I’m Falling in Love?” and “Games People Play” really needs to justify its inclusion in any such institution. The group may have additionally benefited from a combination of seniority and sentimentality; they were one of just three nominees from the ’60s and ’70s on the ballot this year (and the one with the biggest pop hits), and they were also one of just three acts who had already been nominated three times before (with the other two also getting in).
SURPRISE: Rage Against the MachineSNUB: Soundgarden
To be fair, it was pretty close to a coin flip between these two great ’90s alternative-era bands — whose names will forever linked due to members from each coming together in the ’00s to form the similarly successful supergroup Audioslave. It seemed like it was time for one of the two to get in this year; both had been nominated before and both have very Rock Hall-friendly resumés. We ultimately leaned towards Soundgarden in our predictions, saying that the Seattle quartet “cast a bit longer a shadow [than Rage Against the Machine] — partly because of their earlier start (as the first real sensations of the grunge era) and partly because of the specter of late frontman Chris Cornell, one of the most inimitable rock frontmen of the last 40 years.”
However, the voters leaned the other way this year: Rage Against the Machine was finally inducted in its fifth try since 2018, becoming the closest thing to a traditional rock band let through the Rock Hall’s doors in 2023. (And with a rapping frontman in Zack de la Rocha and a sound that’s as indebted to funk and hip-hop as punk and metal, they’re not all that traditional.) Rage’s voting profile probably got a boost from its 2022 reunion tour — which was unfortunately cut short after 11 dates due to de la Rocha suffering a leg injury, but still may have rekindled enough memories of the band’s greatness to get it over the hump this time around.
SURPRISE: George Michael and Missy Elliott
Neither is a surprise individually, but together (along with fellow 2023 inductees Kate Bush and Willie Nelson) George Michael and Missy Elliott getting in demonstrates just how much Rock Hall voters have begun drifting towards iconic solo artists, almost regardless of what genre they’re most associated with. George Michael’s music occasionally flirted with traditional rock, but he was also proudly pop — in ways Rock Hall voters have not always rewarded or even approved of — while rap great Missy Elliott has very little connection to guitar-based rock music to speak of.
However, George Michael and Missy Elliott are undeniably crucial figures of the last 40 years of popular music — with Michael becoming one of the most trailblazing superstars on radio and MTV in the ’80s and early ’90s, and Elliott evolving the sound and image of hip-hop with her innovative albums, singles and music videos. In 2023, it appears that such an outsized impact on the music and culture of the rock era is more important to Rock Hall voters than any kind of strictly defined quintessential rockness. (Of the five solo performers inducted this year, Sheryl Crow is the only conventional rock star — and she also spent significant parts of her career dabbling in other genres like pop and country.)
SNUB: A Tribe Called Quest
Neither a legendary solo hitmaker nor a traditional rock band, ’90s rap trio A Tribe Called Quest seems likely to keep getting stuck in the middle for Rock Hall voters. The influential New York group is now 0-2, having been nominated each of the last two years but not yet inducted. Affection for the group among hip-hop heads and critics of all stripes remains perennially strong, so they’re likely to at least stay in the mix for years to come, but it may take something of a concentrated push to actually get them through the doors at this point.
SURPRISE: Chaka Khan (Musical Excellence Award)
Welcome, Ms. Khan! The funk and R&B icon of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s had been nominated a staggering seven times as a performer — three times solo, four times along with her funk band Rufus — but had yet to be voted in, making her one of the institution’s preeminent bridesmaids. No longer: The Rock Hall finally took it out of the voters’ hands this year, making her one of three Musical Excellence Award recipients (along with storied studio musician Al Kooper and hitmaking songwriter/Elton John collaborator Bernie Taupin). Khan’s honorary induction is unexpected — probably for no one more than the singer herself — but logical, following such multi-time snubs as Kraftwerk, Judas Priest and LL Cool J taking a similar path to Rock Hall entry via the honorary awards earlier this decade.
As Academy of Country Music CEO Damon Whiteside prepares for the 58th edition of the ACM Awards to return to Amazon’s Prime Video on May 11, he says lessons learned from the 2022 edition are guiding this year’s show.
Last year, the ACM Awards became the first major awards ceremony to switch from broadcast to a streaming platform. “There was a chunk of people that didn’t know we moved from CBS,” Whiteside says. “What we’ve learned is we have to really lean into our core country audience and make sure they’re aware the show is happening. For anybody that is not a regular Prime Video user, we need to bring them into the Prime Video ecosystem and show them how simple it is.”
To make it as accessible as possible, Amazon is offering the show for free to subscribers and non-subscribers alike across more than 240 countries and territories via Prime Video and the Amazon Music channel on Twitch. The full show will stream the next day for free on Amazon Freevee.
(Though rare, Prime Video has offered livestreams in the past, including for Kanye West and Drake‘s “Free Larry Hoover” benefit concert in 2021. Amazon could not be reached for comment by press time.)
It helps that this year, the show’s co-hosts are two of the biggest stars in the world: Dolly Parton (who hosted last year with Jimmie Allen and Gabby Barrett) and Garth Brooks. Whiteside says he’s still “pinching myself” that the music icons are emceeing the two-hour show, which will stream commercial-free from the Ford Center at the Star in Frisco, Tex.
After Parton hosted last year, “Our goal right away was ‘How can we get Dolly back involved again?’” Whiteside says. Once she was on board, the idea came to pair her with Brooks, who has never hosted an awards show before. “They’re close friends, admirers of each other, so it was actually very organic,” he continues. “We couldn’t have a better pair than the two of them to be the face of the show because we’re a global show and they’re global superstars.”
This year’s show has been thrown the curveball of the Writers Guild of America strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which started at midnight Tuesday (May 2). However, a source tells Billboard that the script was completed before the strike began and the show is not expected to be affected even if the strike is still ongoing.
This year marks the ACM Awards’ return to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex for the first time since its 50th anniversary show in 2015 (last year’s ceremony was held at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium). The show’s host venue, the Ford Center at the Star, serves as the world headquarters for the Dallas Cowboys, who are partners for this year’s event. “Ever since I took this job [in 2019], my board said we need to work with the Cowboys again,” Whiteside says. “They’re amazing partners and Texas is a great market.”
HARDY leads all nominees at this year’s show with seven nods, followed by Lainey Wilson with six. Cole Swindell, Kane Brown, Luke Combs and Miranda Lambert each have five, while Chris Stapleton and Morgan Wallen landed four.
This year’s awards will feature several changes. The songwriter of the year category has been split into songwriter of the year and artist-songwriter of the year awards, while the criteria for album of the year eligibility shifted from 51% to 75% previously unreleased material. Most notably, the entertainer of the year category has expanded from five to seven nominees.
“We have so many amazing entertainer nominees that we’d like to showcase more of a breadth of them and [the expansion] gives more opportunity for more artists to have that spotlight,” Whiteside says. “It gives seven artists now the opportunity to say, ‘I’m an entertainer of the year nominee.’ So, it was to diversify, but also to give more artists the opportunity to be able to wear that badge of honor.”
The show, which is produced by Dick Clark Productions, also has a new executive producer in Raj Kapoor, who takes over for R.A. Clark, who “was ready to pass the baton,” Whiteside says. “We love him and never want to see him go, but we’re really excited about Raj,” who has worked on projects including the Academy Awards, the Grammy Awards and numerous Las Vegas residencies. “He’s got a really good sense of what country is about and who the artists are, but at the same time, he’s also got this experience from all these other shows,” Whiteside adds. “He’s got his finger on the pulse of pop culture and what the public wants.”
Kapoor is joined by fellow executive producers Barry Adelman and Fonda Anita as well as co-executive producer Patrick Menton. Whiteside serves as executive producer for the Academy.
Performers slated for the event include Jason Aldean, Brown, Combs, Lambert, Wilson, Swindell, Wallen, Jelly Roll, Keith Urban and Bailey Zimmerman.
For the first time since the pandemic began, the ACM Awards will return to a full slate of activities for the week. These include the ACM Lifting Lives benefit on May 10, featuring Wallen, Wilson, HARDY, ERNEST and Zimmerman and hosted at the golfing green of Topgolf the Colony.
For the streaming audience, another goal was figuring out how to enhance the show’s ability to push viewers to participating artists’ Amazon Music accounts. “There’s going to be this uber-location where we can push our viewers to discover everything about the [participating] artists,” Whiteside says. “We can literally within the show push people right into streaming music. I’m excited to see how that’s going to lift artists’ streaming numbers and sales numbers after the show.” Ahead of the ceremony, Amazon Music is offering an ACM Awards playlist celebrating this year’s nominees.
This year’s show concludes the ACM Awards’ initial two-year pact with Amazon, but Whiteside is optimistic that the two partners will find a way to move forward. “Streamers are very much about the metrics, and they do a lot of evaluating around how the show performs,” he says, but adds, “[Amazon is] hugely excited about this show. It’s a tentpole priority for them. We’ve been having discussions about ’24 and ’25. We’re really just focused on another stellar year and growing from last year. We’re hopeful this is a long-term partnership.”
The 58th ACM Awards are produced by Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Eldredge, a unit of Billboard’s parent, Penske Media Company.
Several big names from the recorded music world received 2023 Tony nominations. Josh Groban received his second best actor (musical) nod for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Sara Bareilles received her first best actress (musical) nod for Into the Woods. Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally received their first Tony nods – best original score (music and/or lyrics) written for the theatre for Shucked.
Several more record veterans were nominated as producers of best musical contenders. Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Shellback and veteran music executive Barry Weiss are among the nominated producers of & Juliet. Mariah Carey is among the nominated producers of Some Like It Hot. Jason Owen, Gary Gersh and Sony Music Entertainment are among the nominated producers of Shucked.
In addition, Interscope and Immersive Records are among the nominated producers of Parade, which is nominated for best revival of a musical.
John Gore is assured of winning a Tony this year for best musical. He’s nominated as a producer of all five nominated shows – on his own in the case of Kimberly Akimbo and as part of the John Gore Organization on the other four nominees – & Juliet, New York, New York, Shucked and Some Like It Hot.
Three people received two nominations each in musical craft categories. Jennifer Weber is nominated for best choreography for both & Juliet and KPOP. Scott Pask is nominated for best scenic design of a musical for both Shucked and Some Like It Hot. Natasha Katz is nominated for best lighting design of a musical for both Some Like It Hot and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
For the most part, the 2023 Tony nominations went about as expected. All five of the nominees for best musical and all four of the nominees for best revival of a musical were picked by pundits as the likely nominees. But there were also some surprises.
Here are some of the most notable snubs and surprises in the musical categories 2023 Tony nominations.
Snub: John Kander and Lin-Manuel Miranda
Image Credit: Bruce Glikas/Getty Images
These two pros have won a combined seven Tony Awards. With his late partner Fred Ebb, Kander won best original score three times for Cabaret, Woman of the Year and Kiss of the Spider Woman—The Musical. Hamilton has won twice in that category for In the Heights and Hamilton. But nobody hits a home-run every time out. They were left off the nominations list in that category for New York, New York. And it’s not as if the show was dismissed by Tony voters. It received nine nods, including best musical.
Surprise: Cameron Crowe
Image Credit: Nina Westervelt for Variety
Almost Famous, the Broadway adaptation of Cameron Crowe’s beloved 2000 film, was “almost” shut out in the nominations. It picked up just one nod, best original score for Crowe and Tom Litt. Crowe won both an Oscar and a Grammy for the film and its soundtrack. Now he’s a Tony nominee for the Broadway adaptation of that same work. Now if they can just figure out a way to turn it into a TV show, Crowe could get an Emmy nod for his masterwork too.
Snub: ‘A Beautiful Noise’
The Neil Diamond jukebox musical failed to land a single nomination. Last year, MJ, the Michael Jackson jukebox musical, was nominated for 10 Tonys, including best musical, and won four, including best actor in a musical for its star, Myles Frost. Will Swenson, the star of A Beautiful Noise, was a 2009 Tony nominee for his featured role in Hair. Diamond and Jackson are both pop music icons, but the shows were greeted very differently by Tony voters.
Surprise: ‘KPOP’
KPOP was passed over for a nomination in the marquee category of best musical, but it received three nods, including best original score for Helen Park and Max Vernon. This mirrors K-pop’s mixed Grammy track record. K-pop acts have yet to crack the closely-watched “Big Four” categories, but BTS has received five Grammy nominations in other categories. This is a classic case of “is the glass half empty or half full?”
Surprise: ‘Some Like It Hot’
The Broadway adaptation of director Billy Wilder’s 1959 film received 13 nominations, more than any other show this year. The film, by comparison, received just six Oscar nominations, including two for Wilder (directing and adapted screenplay) and one for lead actor Jack Lemmon.
Snub: ‘1776’
The revival of this show was shut out in the nominations. The original 1969 production won best musical, beating two powerhouse shows – Hair and Promises, Promises, as well as Zorba, a musical adaptation of Zorba the Greek. Two other high-profile shows – Bad Cinderella and a revival of Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ – were shut out in this year’s nominations.
Mariah Carey took to social media on Tuesday morning (May 2) to celebrate Some Like It Hot scoring more than a dozen Tony Award nominations.
“Congratulations to the amazing cast and crew!!! Couldn’t have asked for better news to wake up to!!!” the Songbird Supreme turned Broadway producer shared on her Instagram Stories.
The musical leads this year’s pack of Tony nominees with 13 nominations, including best musical, best performance by a leading actor in a musical (both Christian Borle and J. Harrison Ghee), best performance by a featured actor in a musical (Kevin Del Aguila), best performance by a featured actress in a musical (NaTasha Yvette Williams), best direction, best book, best original score and more.
Carey, meanwhile, serves more than one function in the musical. Not only is she a member of the production team, but she also lent her voice to the pre-show announcement before the curtain rises. (“Welcome to the Shubert Theater!” she tells the audience each night. “At this time, please take a moment to turn off your cell phones. And remember: The use of photographic equipment and recording devices is strictly prohibited. And now, Some Like It Hot.”)
Should Some Like It Hot take home the Tony for best musical, Mariah would technically be halfway to EGOT status, thanks to the five Grammys she’s collected over the years out of 34 total nominations — including wins for best new artist in 1991 and best R&B song for 2005’s “We Belong Together.”
Check out Mimi’s reaction to her first Tony nomination before it expires here.
The ballot schedule has been revealed for the 57th annual CMA Awards, which is set to be held in in Nashville this November.
The eligibility period for this year’s awards ceremony is from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023. The nomination ballot and instructions for online voting will be emailed Wednesday, July 5 to Country Music Association members in good standing who are eligible to vote.
The voting schedule is as follows:
July 14: Voting for the nomination ballot closes at 6 p.m. CT.
Aug. 2: The second ballot is emailed to CMA members.
Aug. 16: Voting for the second ballot closes at 6 p.m. CT. The final nominees in each of the 12 categories are set to be announced later in the summer.
Oct. 2: The third and final ballot is emailed to CMA members.
Oct. 27: Voting for the CMA Awards final ballot closes at 6 p.m. CT.
All balloting is tabulated by the professional services organization Deloitte. To vote in all three rounds of balloting for the 57th annual awards, prospective CMA members must apply for membership by Thursday, June 1.
In regards to the 2023 CMA Broadcast Awards — which awards broadcast personality, station and national broadcast personality of the year — applicants are no longer required to be CMA members in order to submit.
The CMA Broadcast Awards are presented for broadcast personality and station of the year in four categories determined by market size (major, large, medium and small market) as well as two categories for CMA national broadcast personality of the year (daily and weekly). Digital service providers with livestream broadcasts are eligible to apply for national broadcast personality of the year.
To submit an entry, radio stations and broadcast personalities in the United States and Canada can log on to broadcast.CMAawards.com, where guidelines and instructions for entries are posted. The site will continue to accept submissions until Friday, June 30 at 5 p.m. CT.
All CMA Broadcast Awards entries must reflect performances and events between June 1, 2022, and May 31, 2023. CMA’s panel of judges, which includes radio and industry professionals, will view and evaluate each entry online. CMA Broadcast Awards winners will be notified in early October and recognized at the November ceremony.
Additionally, the nomination period for CMA’s “industry honors” — which includes categories such as the CMA founding president’s award, the CMA Foundation humanitarian award and the Irving Waugh award of excellence — will remain open through Sunday, July 9.
Nominees and winners for the 2023 CMA Broadcast Awards and the CMA Awards are determined by professional members of the CMA.