State Champ Radio Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
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Soundgarden‘s Kim Thayil was caught unawares when he learned about the band’s second Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination on Tuesday (Jan. 31).
“It was not no my radar,” Thayil, who co-founded the group during 1984 in Seattle, tells Billboard. “I hadn’t been thinking about it, so it’s a very pleasant surprise. Very cool.”
The nod comes three years after Soundgarden’s first nomination, in 2020, and Thayil says that taught him — along with surviving bandmates drummer Matt Cameron and bassist Ben Shepherd — about the regard and relevance the band enjoys nearly four years after it ended in the wake of frontman Chris Cornell‘s suicide following a concert in Detroit.
“What was cool about (2020) was just the recognition of the acknowledgement,” Thayil explains. “If you’re involved with your bandmates and fellow musicians in your peer group, you can sometimes get isolated from the general historical context of how the band has evolved and became part of the broader community of music and musicians. So I think that acknowledgement and that recognition was a reminder that, hey, they work that you did with your partners was part of a continuity and a history of music. That’s kind of cool.”
Thayil adds that it was Cornell who helped Soundgarden get some appreciation of the Rock Hall after he inducted Seattle rock precursors Heart in 2013. “He lived the experience and said the enthusiasm of the fans was eye-opening for him, and understanding how important that was… And Matt seconded it. And I think that’s always been a context in which Soundgarden would understand its work; we always wanted to be the kind of band for our fans that we looked up to and inspired us. We wanted to be that kind of band would make decisions with regard to that community that had supported us or that we had worked to build, and I think we did a great job of that.”
Soundgarden were named on Tuesday as part of a class of nominees that also includes Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, Iron Maiden, JoyDivision/New Order, Cyndi Lauper, George Michael, Willie Nelson, Rage Against the Machine, The Spinners, A Tribe Called Quest, The White Stripes and Warren Zevon.
During its 34-year run, Soundgarden released six studio albums, including the six-times platinum Superunknown in 1994, and won two Grammy Awards. The group was the first of the Northwest grunge bands to sign with a major label (A&M Records in 1989) and spearheaded a movement out of Seattle that also included Rock Hall inductees Nirvana and Pearl Jam. The late Cornell also released five solo studio albums and joined members of Rage Against the Machine in the band Audioslave during Soundgarden’s 1997-2010 hiatus.
A Soundgarden induction this fall could be tricky, though. Cornell’s widow, Vicky Cornell, has two pending lawsuits against the band. One is over seven unreleased recordings Cornell worked on before his death that she claims belonged to him and not the band and another charges that the surviving members have undervalued the estate’s share in the band in a buyout offer and was withholding money that was owed. Soundgarden has denied the allegations.
If voted in, can everyone put aside the differences?
“I think our interest and dedication is to that work and that legacy, and that would involve honoring our beloved partner and his legacy as well,” Thayil says. “I think this (nomination) is part of the recognition of our work, of our career and of the material we produced. And I think the band wants to continue and has always wanted to continue with attending to that legacy, and that’s the way we can honor Soundgarden and honor Chris.”
Thayil, Cameron (who’s part of Pearl Jam) and Shepherd did reunite to play a pair of songs at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert last September in Los Angeles. “It was an unusual experience to feel that combination of sadness and reverence and enthusiasm. It’s really odd,” Thayil recalls. “It’s always great to play with Ben and Matt, and it’s great to play the material that we worked on and recorded and promote… and to address the legacy with our work and to honor the band and Chris.”
On his own, Thayil is continuing to work with 3rd Secret, a band that includes Cameron, Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and others; he says the group was recently “in the studio doing a little bit of writing and recording. I think that’ll kid of continue as long as that’s fun for us and rewarding, and it has been. It’s the same sort of situation — someone has ideas, ‘Hey Kim, Matt, come here. I want to show you my song. What do you think of it? Do you want to play it? Do you have any ideas?’ — just the way Soundgarden was like, really.”
Despite their treasure chest of songs, style and, in their late-80s heyday, the ability to fill stadiums a long way from home, INXS is one of many bands waiting for a Rock Hall nod.
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A dedicated group of fans is trying to change that.
A change.org petition, simply titled “Induct INXS into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” is well on its way to reaching its target of 15,000 signatures.
At the time of writing, more than 11,000 fans have joined the petition, which declares: “After many years of amazing music and dynamic “live” performances, it’s time to ensure the legacy of one of the greatest bands in the world – INXS!”
The campaign was established by “Team Induct INXS,” comprised of fans Dina Ghram, Shanon Steele and Jim Skivalidas.
“All three of us are big music fans and have a deep appreciation of bands that have touched our lives and inspired us throughout the years,” the trio write in a message to Billboard.
“INXS is at the top of all three of our lists – we’ve grown up with them, seen them ‘live’, bought all their albums, and come to think of INXS as a family of sorts.”
Alongside the Rock Hall petition, the team invested in a website at inductinxs.com. “We wanted to make sure that the fans knew we were taking this induct campaign seriously,” they explain.
Despite Australia’s renowned pedigree in rock music, few acts from the great southern land have graduated to the Rock Hall.
The Bee Gees and AC/CD are both immortalized, as is Red Hot Chili Peppers bass player Flea, who was born Michael Balzary, in Melbourne. The Bee Gees, AC/DC and INXS are all members of the ARIA Hall of Fame.
Formed in Perth, Australia in 1977, and fronted by the charismatic Michael Hutchence, INXS kicked on to become one of the most popular alternative rock bands of the ‘80s.
Across their career, the new wave act sold over 60 million record sales worldwide, according to their label, Petrol, and bagged No. 1s on both sides of the Atlantic.
The rockers scored six U.K. top 10 albums (including a best-seller with Welcome To Wherever You Are from 1992) and five U.S. top 20 albums.
The 1987 album Kick went on to become the group’s highest and longest-charting album in the U.S., with a peak of No. 3 on the Billboard 200. It remained on the survey for 81 weeks, and four of its singles cracked the top 10 on the Hot 100: “New Sensation,” “Never Tear Us Apart,” “Devil Inside” and the “Need You Tonight,” which led the chart.
INXS was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2001, four years after the death of Hutchence, aged 37. The band has been eligible for induction into the Cleveland, Ohio-based Rock Hall since 2006, though, to date, their name hasn’t been called.
Though the surviving members of INXS have called time on touring, a popular podcast, INXS: Access All Areas, led by Haydn Murdoch and Bridgit “Bee” Hewitt, explores the band and their many hits, which include “Original Sin,” “What You Need,” “Don’t Change,” “Burn For You,” and others.
The recently-inducted 2022 Rock Hall class included contemporaries Pat Benatar, Eurythmics and Duran Duran, who tapped Nile Rodgers to produce their 1983 hit “The Reflex” after hearing his slick sonic work on “Original Sin.”
“We are not stopping this campaign until INXS is nominated and inducted,” note Team Induct INXS. “This should have happened years ago.”
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is gearing up to celebrate its class of 2022 with the public on Nov. 19, and on Thursday (Nov. 10), a trailer for the upcoming special was released.
In the nearly two-minute clip, snippets from the 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony earlier this month flash across the screen. Rock hitmakers Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, new wave chart-toppers Duran Duran, hip-hop heavyweight Eminem, synth-pop duo Eurythmics, country legend Dolly Parton, R&B hitmaker Lionel Richie and pop singer-songwriter Carly Simon are all seen accepting their prestigious honor, along with introductions from star-studded attendees. Judas Priest and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis also joined the Rock Hall with the “award for musical excellence.”
“Rock and roll is not a color,” Richie is seen saying in the teaser. “It’s a vibe!”
Artists are eligible for Rock Hall nomination 25 years after their first commercial recording came out. Of this class, Eminem, Duran Duran, Richie, Simon and Parton see induction after appearing on the ballot just once. This is also Eminem’s first year of eligibility; 2022 marked the second nomination for Eurythmics and Benatar.
The 2022 ceremony also marked the first time in the Hall’s 37-year history that six female acts — Benatar, Parton, Simon, Cotten, Robinson and Annie Lennox (who comprised Eurythmics with her partner Dave Stewart) — were inducted in one class.
Watch the trailer below, and be sure to catch the 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, streaming November 19 on HBO Max, which you can sign up for here.
Eminem has famously taken a number of pretty vicious swipes against his mother Debbie on songs such as “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” and “My Name Is” (before offering a mea culpa on 2013’s “Headlights”). But that all appears to be water under the bridge now that Marshall is officially a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
After the Detroit Don took his place among the rock gods over the weekend at the 2022 RRHOF induction ceremony, Debbie Mathers recorded a congratulations video that was pure proud mama. “Marshall, I want to say, I could not let this day go by without congratulating you on your induction into the Hall of Fame,” said Debbie in a video shared on Monday (Nov. 7) by a friend.
“I love you very much. I knew you’d get there. It’s been a long ride. I’m very, very proud of you. And also I’m very proud of [granddaughter] Hailie Jade, my big girl. I want to tell you Hailie, great job on your podcast and God bless you guys. I love you very much.”
After years of contentious back-and-forth — including a 1999 $12 million lawsuit filed against her son accusing him of slander, which they settled two years later for $25,000 — the sweet message was the perfect cap to a big weekend for Slim Shady. The rapper, joined by daughter Hailie at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles for his big night, alluded to his unusual rise to the occasion in his acceptance speech.
“So I’m probably not supposed to actually be here tonight because of a couple of reasons,” he told the crowd. “One of them that I’m a rapper, and this is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And there’s only a few of us right now that have been inducted in already, but there’s only a few of us… I had to really fight my way through man to try and break through in this music, and I’m so honored and I’m so grateful that I’m even able to be up here doing hip-hop music, man, because I love it so much.”
Em was inducted by his longtime mentor and producer, Dr. Dre, who said he never lost faith in the MC, praising his “raw, dark and humorous lyrics coupled with an impeccable cadence.”
Check out Debbie Mathers’ sweet congratulations video below.
Late Monday (Nov. 7), Alanis Morissette responded to “mis-informed rumblings” about her absence from Saturday’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, saying at this point in her career, she has no need to “spend time in an environment that reduces women.”
In an early event rundown witnessed by Billboard, Morissette was listed as performing “You’re So Vain” with Olivia Rodrigo in tribute to Rock Hall inductee Carly Simon at the ceremony, but her name wasn’t on the final set list. According to a Page Six report, Morissette had rehearsed the duet with Rodrigo on Friday, but in the end, the 19-year-old pop star performed the track on her own.
Morissette began her statement Monday by saying how much she adores Simon and Rodrigo and the other women performing on Saturday’s bill, but she added that she had “sucked it up on more occasions than I can count” and apparently wasn’t willing to do it this time.
“I have spent decades in an industry that is rife with an overarching anti-woman sentiment and have tolerated a lot of condescension and disrespectfulness, reduction, dismissiveness, contract-breaching, unsupportiveness, exploitation and psychological violence (and more) throughout my career,” Morissette shared on her Instagram Story. “I tolerated it because nothing would stop me from connecting with those whom I cared about and resonated with. I live to serve and connect with people and so over the years I sucked it up on more occasions than I can count in order to do so. It’s hard not to be affected in any industry around the world, but Hollywood has been notorious for its disrespect of the feminine in all of us.
“Thankfully, I am at a point in my life where there is no need for me to spend time in an environment that reduces women.”
Morissette’s involvement hadn’t been announced before the event, which will broadcast on HBO later this month. A spokesperson for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame hadn’t responded to Billboard‘s request for comment at press time.
Simon was among the Rock Hall class of 2022, which also included Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, Duran Duran, Eminem, Eurythmics, Dolly Parton and Lionel Richie. Other inductees included Judas Priest and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis for musical excellence; Harry Belafonte and Elizabeth Cotten for early influence; and Allen Grubman, Jimmy Iovine and Sylvia Robinson for the Ahmet Ertegun Award.
Read Morissette’s full statement below:
There are some mis-informed rumblings about my not performing at The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony this past weekend. Firstly, I have to say how much I adore Carly Simon and Olivia Rodrigo and Dolly Parton and Janet Jackson and Pat [Benatar] and Sheryl Crow and Pink and Brandi Carlile and Sara Bareilles—and all the amazing people and artists who were there.
I have spent decades in an industry that is rife with an overarching anti-woman sentiment and have tolerated a lot of condescension and disrespectfulness, reduction, dismissiveness, contract-breaching, unsupportiveness, exploitation and psychological violence (and more) throughout my career. I tolerated it because nothing would stop me from connecting with those whom I cared about and resonated with. I live to serve and connect with people and so over the years I sucked it up on more occasions than I can count in order to do so. It’s hard not to be affected in any industry around the world, but Hollywood has been notorious for its disrespect of the feminine in all of us.
Thankfully, I am at a point in my life where there is no need for me to spend time in an environment that reduces women. I have had countless incredible experiences with production teams with all genders throughout my life. So many, and so fun. There is nothing better than a team of diverse people coming together with one mission. I’ll continue to show up in those environments with bells on.
Voting time! I love you,
alanis
This year’s inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame all gave heartfelt speeches from the stage of Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater detailing what the honor meant to them. And when a number of the Class of 2022 stopped backstage to Billboard’s one-on-one booth, they were able to share even more.
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Duran Duran
Before speaking with Billboard’s, the band stopped in the general press room where Duran Duran lead singer Simon LeBon talked about how he felt reading former bandmate Andy Taylor’s letter on stage about having stage four prostate cancer — a diagnosis that had not been previously made public. “It is devastating news to found out that a colleague — not a colleague, a mate, a friend — is not going to be around for very long,” LeBon said. “It is absolutely devasting. We love Andy dearly. I’m not going to stand here and cry. It wouldn’t be appropriate, but that’s what I feel like.”
On stage, LeBon delivered an emotional take on the band’s 1993 hit, “Ordinary World,” which he co-wrote about trying to cope with the death of his best friend. He told Billboard even nearly 30 years later, the song takes him back every time he sings it. “I think of my dear friend Dave Miles and what it means to me to be able to free myself of his death. That’s what the song was,” he says. “I was imprisoned by my feelings about him. I couldn’t continue on. I couldn’t develop. That song was a way of freeing myself. A way of saying goodbye, letting something go. That is in my heart every time I sing it.”
Duran Duran won the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame fan vote in April garnering nearly a million votes from fans. The support of their Duranies means “everything,” says keyboardist Nick Rhodes. Bassist John Taylor, who befriended Rhodes when Taylor was 12 and Rhodes was 10, says the band can still relate. “We were fans. Not just music buyers. Nick and I used to go hang out backstage, listen to the band do their sound check,” he says. “We love the fan culture. We love identifying with fans through music, so we’ve always had a love for our followers. We get them. We are them.”
This year’s class is one of the most musically varied in the Rock Hall’s history and each member of the band named a different honoree when asked whom they would most like to collaborate with. For LeBon, it was Terry Lewis & Jimmy Jam. Roger Taylor chose Judas Priest, Rhodes picked Dolly Parton and John Taylor selected Annie Lennox. Rhodes came up with the perfect solution: “The thing to do would be to get us and Judas Priest to do the track together and Dolly and Simon to sing with Jam & Lewis producing.”
Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo
November is a big month for Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo. Not only did the couple, who celebrated their 40th anniversary this year, get inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but on Nov. 22 their newest project, Invincible–The Musical, will premiere at the Wallis’ Bram Goldsmith Theater in Beverly Hills (it runs through Dec. 18). They began working on the play, which is a retelling of Romeo & Juliet through the pair’s catalog and new songs, five years ago. The pandemic ended up providing a burst of creativity. “We had done four stage readings prior to the pandemic,” Benatar says. “At first it seemed like the momentum was going to be lost, but it turned out that being home and not touring gave us so much time to work on it. It wound up being something really great and when we finally did come back together to work, we were so much further ahead. That’s why we’re in full production right now.”
For the couple, writing songs is one of the few things they do apart — at least in the early stages. “I write mostly on piano,” Giraldo says. “Sometimes I start with words, sometimes I start with a title or a chorus, and I hand it off to Patricia. Then she adds to that and I go, ‘Oh my God, that’s great,’ and that inspires me. So I do more and then she hears what I do and goes, ‘Oh my god, that’s great.’ That’s how it goes.”
“We don’t really write in the same room at the same time,” Benatar continued. “We take pieces of things. If I have a story that I’m thinking of, I give it to him and he puts music to it. It goes back and forth and we don’t do it at the same time until we get further along and then we come together with our individual ideas and put them together.”
Lionel Richie
As one of several of the inductees who performed their songs at the event, Lionel Richie had the crowd on its feet and dancing during a joyous version of his signature hit “All Night Long.” As he told Billboard, he has reached a place in his life and career that is all about uniting people. “Do you know how wonderful it is to walk into a room and people start smiling?” he says. “ I’m not playing. I’m walking into a dinner, I’m walking into a restaurant, I’m walking my kids to school. What I’m saying is I don’t know how you get this blessed, but it’s a moment in time when you realize the songs have translated over into this thing called love.”
He touched on another love: country music. It’s been 10 years since Richie released Tuskegee, his wildly successful album reimagining his greatest hits as duets with country artists including Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney and Jason Aldean. Richie, who also wrote Kenny Rogers’ smash, “Lady,” says he promises his own country record of new music is coming. “Country is so solid with me and the answer is it will happen,” he says. “I’m a gigantic procrastinator, so [when] it hits me over the head or runs over me is when I go, ‘Ok, I’ll get on it,’ but [my manager] has been pushing me. Tell Nashville it’s coming. It won’t be too long. I promise.”
The Eurythmics
Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox wore identical black suits in an intentional homage to the Eurythmics‘ early days. “All through the years, Dave and I, especially with [1983 breakthrough hit] ‘Sweet Dreams,’ we had very small budgets. We didn’t have any budget, actually,” Lennox says. “We’d buy second-hand things and put them together. We wore the suits at the very beginning with ‘Sweet Dreams.’ There was a sense for us of being equals, of being like twins. There was something about the unit of being one and one makes three. It was always what we felt. I always loved it because it wasn’t an overtly feminist statement at the time, but nevertheless it gave me permission not to have to be a pretty kind of accessory. That was where it came from.”
Added Stewart, “There was a conscious decision to try and step away from anything that was happening at all and make ourselves like a single unit. United front.”
The duo also performed at their induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame earlier this year (postponed from 2020), but say they can go years without playing together. When they do, muscle memory kicks in. “We’ve played so much in the past, we know instinctively, ‘OK, this is this song, we can do this,’” Stewart says.
But any thoughts of reuniting for a tour are not realistic, Lennox clarifies. “There’s always a certain joy that does come from performance and all singers’ bodies are their instruments and, for me, I actually did have a quite serious thing happen in my back,” she says. “I have certain health issues and the thought of doing a long tour is really arduous. In my time in life, it’s like, ‘What’s best to do?’ We do enjoy playing together. I very much enjoy playing with Dave. He’s great. One of the best musicians in the world.”
For Lennox, preparing for the energetic Rock Hall performance helped pull her out of pandemic doldrums. “I kind of lost a lot of my will to live,” she says. “I’m kidding. I just had to say that. Throughout the pandemic, I just didn’t feel like going out. I didn’t feel like exercising, but this gave me a motivation to go back and get fit again, which was a great bonus for me.”
Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis have more No. 1s on Billboard charts than any other songwriting and production team — and they aren’t slowing down. The pair are at work on Volume 2, their follow up to to 2021’s Jam & Lewis, Volume 1, which paired them with Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Toni Braxton and more.
They wouldn’t spill any names for Volume 2 just yet, but from their Rock Hall class, the two acts they’d most like to collaborate with are Lennox and Duran Duran, “because we just had a discussion with them about ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’ influencing [Janet Jackson’s] ‘Escapade,’” Jam said.
Friends since their teens, Jam and Lewis have always operated on a handshake deal and split everything 50/50. “We don’t really worry about the money or the budgets or any of that kind of stuff, it’s just about the creativity,” Jam says. “We’re free to individually do what we want to do…Sometimes there will be a song that came out on the radio and it sounds great and I’ll be like, ‘Terry, when did you do that?’ But I got 50 % of it, so it doesn’t matter and it eliminated about 99% of anything creatively that we could ever disagree about… It’s not my way or his way, it’s the best way.”
Now they’re all gone. With Jerry Lee Lewis‘ death at age 87, which was announced on Friday (Oct. 28), the last survivor of the inaugural class of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has passed on. Lewis became the sole survivor upon Don Everly’s death on Aug. 21, 2021.
That inaugural class in 1986 consisted of nine solo artists and a duo, The Everly Brothers.
Three of the first year’s inductions were made posthumously. Buddy Holly had died in a plane crash in 1959 at age 22, Sam Cooke was shot to death in 1964 at 33, and Elvis Presley had died of cardiac arrest in 1977 at 42.
Eight of the inaugural inductees were alive at the time of the first Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Jan. 23, 1986, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York but have since died. Ray Charles died in 2004 at 73, followed by James Brown in 2006 at 73, Phil Everly in 2014 at 74, Chuck Berry in 2017 at 90, Fats Domino in 2017 at 89, Little Richard in 2020 at 87, Don Everly at 84 and now Jerry Lee Lewis at 87.
Here’s a quick look at the inaugural class, showing the artist’s highest-charting hit(s) on the Billboard Hot 100 (or predecessor charts) and the name of the person who inducted them into the Rock Hall. For the five artists whose highest-charting hits occurred before the inception of the Hot 100 on Aug. 4, 1958, we also show their highest charting Hot 100 hit.
Chuck Berry
Top hit: “My Ding-a-Ling,” No. 1 in 1972
Inducted by: Keith Richards
James Brown
Top hit: “I Got You (I Feel Good),” No. 3 in 1965
Inducted by: Steve Winwood
Ray Charles
Top hits: Three No. 1 hits: “Georgia on My Mind” in 1960, “Hit the Road Jack” in 1961 and “I Can’t Stop Loving You” in 1962
Inducted by: Quincy Jones
Sam Cooke
Top hit: “You Send Me,” No. 1 in 1957. Top Hot 100 hit: “Chain Gang,” No. 2 in 1960
Inducted by: Herb Alpert
Fats Domino
Top hit: “Blueberry Hill,” No. 2 in 1957. Top Hot 100 hits: “Whole Lotta Loving,” No. 6 in 1959, “Walkin’ to New Orleans,” No. 6 in 1960.
Inducted by: Billy Joel
The Everly Brothers
Top hits: Four No. 1 hits: “Wake Up Little Susie in 1957, “All I Have to Do Is Dream” in 1958, “Bird Dog” in 1958 and “Cathy’s Clown” in 1960. Only the latter song reached No. 1 on the Hot 100.
Inducted by: Neil Young
Buddy Holly
Top hit: “That’ll Be the Day” (The Crickets),” No. 1 in 1957. Top Hot 100 hit: “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore,” No. 13 in 1959.
Inducted by: John Fogerty
Jerry Lee Lewis
Top hit: “Great Balls of Fire,” No. 2 in 1958. Top Hot 100 hit: “What’d I Say,” No. 30 in 1961.
Inducted by: Hank Williams Jr.
Little Richard
Top hit: “Long Tall Sally,” No. 6 in 1956. Top Hot 100 hit: “Baby Face,” No. 41 in 1958.
Inducted by: Roberta Flack
Elvis Presley
Top hits: 17 No. 1 hits from “Heartbreak Hotel” in 1956 to “Suspicious Minds” in 1969. Seven No. 1 hits on the Hot 100.
Inducted by: Julian and Sean Lennon
The music industry has completely transformed since Gary Kurfirst’s epic four-decade run as a rock promoter, label head and artist manager to acts including the Talking Heads, The Ramones and Jane’s Addiction, but much of the advice he taught his artists remains true today.
Fine tune one’s craft. Build an audience. Create authentic and meaningful art.
“He wanted to keep his artists in the underground, focused on making music and creating art while protecting them from the business side,” says Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz, recalling the time that Kurfirst turned down a Rolling Stone cover because he felt the band wasn’t ready for such a career milestone.
“I remember him always telling us ‘Don’t smile in promotion photos – they’ll think you’re making a lot of money,’” recalls multi-instrumentalist Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads, one of the many A-list acts Kurfirst managed and worked alongside including Bob Marley, the Eurythmics, Garbage and dozens of other bands. Kurfist’s career ran parallel to music industry giants like concert promoter Michael Lang, agent Frank Barsalona and Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, and it’s one that belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, says his son Josh Kurfirst, a partner at WME and the agency’s global head of festivals.
Felix of Mountain with Young Ozzy on the left Gary on Rt Gary on the Right. Felix Pappalardi of Mountain (center). A young Ozzie Osbourne left center. Gary selected a relatively unknown Black Sabbath to open for Mountain on their US tour 1969.
Courtesy of The Kurfirst Estate
Joshua Kurfirst is actively positioning his father to be considered for the Ahmet Ertegun Lifetime Achievement Award for Industry Professionals at the Rock Hall. While much of the nomination process is veiled in secrecy, the younger Kurfirst has been in touch with the artists and executives his dad collaborated with over the years, archiving thousands of documents and relaunching the website GaryKurfirst.com in hopes of adding his father posthumously to the Hall of Fame (Kurfirst passed away in 2009). Currently, there are four music managers in the Hall of Fame, all winners of the Ahmet Ertegun Lifetime Achievement Award: Eagles and Fleetwood Mac manager Irving Azoff, Bruce Springsteen manager Jon Landau, late Beatles manager Brian Epstein and former Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham.
Kurfirst was also a concert promoter, a label chief at his Radioactive Records, and a family man who married an art teacher named Phyllis in the late 1960s. He had countless stories to share and was a tireless advocate for an artist’s career longevity.
“Gary knew it was essential that the fans walked away feeling they got a really good value for their money,” says Harrison. “And he balanced that with how much the band needed to make for the night to go on to the next show. He had been a promoter himself and knew every part of the business. He’d prefer to work with people, but he had no problem saying, “I don’t care if you’re the only guy in town, we will promote the show ourselves if we have to.”
He also stood by his artists when they faced difficult creative decisions, says famed Blondie front woman Debbie Harry, who hired Kurfirst to help with her solo career shortly after the new wave hitmakers called it quits in 1982 (they reunited 15 years later).
Phyllis and Gary at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester.
Courtesy of The Kurfirst Estate
“I’m sure he would have preferred we got back together but he was very smart and came in knowing the dynamic,” said Harry. “He started when he was quite young and knew the industry from all the different angles. That is really the best kind of manager to have – somebody who gets it and loves it regardless of how crazy things get.”
Shirley Manson of Garbage recalls first meeting Kurfirst when her former band, Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie, was opening for Harry on her Debravation tour.
“He took a great interest in me at the time and told me,’ I think you’re a star.’ And I thought it was ludicrous – I was a backing keyboardist and vocalist,” she recalls. Kurfirst ended up buying out Goodbye Mr Mackenzie’s contract to bring them over to his own label Radioactive Records. The band never took off, and Manson performed with Angelfish until auditioning for Garbage, a group being formed by Nirvana producer Butch Vig.
“I needed an opportunity. And Gary gave me that,” Manson tells Billboard. “Above all else, I am so grateful to Gary for the belief he had in me. Even when things got tricky and there was a lot of backlash in the press, Gary told me ‘You’re great at what you do. You are a star. Just hold the line. I believe in you.’”
Kurfirst was born July 8, 1947, in Forest Hills, Queens. He graduated from Forest Hills High School in 1964 — he was classmates with members of The Ramones — and promoted concerts at the Forest Hills Stadium (then called the West Side Tennis Club). In 1968 he promoted the NY Rock Festival at the Singer Bowl in Queens that was headlined by the Doors, The Who and Jimi Hendrix with his then-partner Shelly Finkel.
Kurfirst expanded into Manhattan by striking a deal to book the Village Theater, a former Lower East Side cinema-turned live music venue that hosted The Who, who nearly caused a riot as fans gathered outside to see the legendary rock group. Bill Graham would take the reins of the theater in 1968, rechristening it as the Fillmore East (the sister venue to Graham’s Fillmore in San Francisco).
Jimi Hendrix concert produced by Gary Kurfirst and Shelly Finkel. Phyllis Kurfirst was Gary’s artistic director and designed this poster.
Courtesy Photo
In 1969, Kurfirst began managing former high school classmate Leslie West and his hard rock band Mountain. Ironically, one of Gary’s first big tests as a manager came at the 1969 Woodstock Festival, where Mountain was scheduled to perform in the afternoon.
When he and the band arrived at the festival site in upstate New York, Kurfirst noticed that the show was way off schedule and “more or less being made up as it went along,” his son Josh says. Noticing that instead of following a schedule, organizers were putting acts on stage as soon as they spotted all the members of a band together backstage, Kurfirst told the group to scatter to different parts of the site and meet backstage at 8:30 p.m.
“The plan worked perfectly, and Mountain ended up with a prime set time,” Josh says.
Managing Mountain brought Kurfirst into the orbit of Island founder Chris Blackwell, who eventually convinced Kurfirst to move himself and his family to the west side of Nassau in the Bahamas where Blackwell operated the Compass Point recording studio. Through his relationship with Blackwell, Kurfirst would meet Bob Marley and land a gig as tour manager for the reggae star’s debut US tour. Kurfirst would go on to manage former Wailers legend Peter Tosh and watched incredulously when he first saw Tosh bury a briefcase of cash he had been paid as part of the record deal Kurfirst had negotiated for him. When Kurfirst asked for an explanation, Tosh simply told him, “I made a deposit in the Bank of Jamaica.”
Kurfirst with Toots Hibbert of Toots and the Maytals in a diner.
Courtesy of The Kurfirst Estate
Upon his eventual return to New York, Kurfirst began to frequent Hilly Kristal’s East Village club CBGB, where he met and signed The Talking Heads as management clients and later signed The Ramones.
Kurfirst would go on to produce several concert films for the Heads, including 1984’s Stop Making Sense, which would be added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 2021. Four years after launching Radioactive Records, an imprint for MCA Records, the label scored its first No. 1 album with Live’s Throwing Copper, which went on to sell eight million copies.
In total, Kurfirst managed more than 40 artists and groups during his career, including Steve Winwood, Robert Palmer, the B-52’s, Big Audio Dynamite, Deee-Lite, Dig, Los Amigos Invisibles and Skinny Puppy.
“Gary’s taste, ability to identify star talent, and build lasting brands out of those stars was extraordinary,” says Josh, who himself has risen through the top echelons of live music, leading WME’s festival division.
In the final years of his life, Gary began working with his son booking concerts for Spanish language artists. He passed away in 2009 while visiting the Bahamas. He was 61. One of his final management and label projects was with Blackwell, who was Kurfirst’s neighbor and friend for many years when Kurfirst and his family were living in the Caribbean.
The two developed a management company, Kurfirst-Blackwell Entertainment, as well as Rx Records, an imprint for artists that proffered more contractual flexibility and creative latitude than most major labels.
“He had a gift for getting the very best from the artists he worked with without getting in their way or pushing too far,” Blackwell says. “Gary was not just a great manager; he was an excellent marketer and a very creative businessman. He believed in his artists, and they really believed in him. They knew he would do whatever he could to make their music and their careers a success.”
Gary Kurfirst with a young Josh Kurfirst
