During an appearance on “The Eddie Trunk Podcast,” Ted Nugent shared his thoughts on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, taking issue with how several pop and hip-hop artists have been inducted before notable rock bands.
“It says Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. And they basically pissed on Chuck Berry’s grave, the way I look at it. Chubby Checker – If he’s not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but Grandmaster Flash [is] … I’m not knocking Grandmaster Flash. Maybe I am. But there’s a bunch of people that are in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame that is just sacrilege. It’s just rude. It’s dishonest,” Nugent said.
“I’m referencing the difference between real rock and rollers and people who are in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame that have nothing to do with rock and roll – whether it’s Madonna or Grandmaster Flash.”
He continued: “If you list the credentials of why any real rock and roller is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, I think we can come to the conclusion, honestly, that REO [Speedwagon], and Triumph, and Styx should be in it. If you just have a list of credentials, a list of accomplishments, I certainly should have been in before Madonna or Grandmaster Flash. But I never make the case for me.”
In an interview with Vulture last year about why the Rock Hall has chosen to induct acts from a variety of genres and not just rock and roll, chairman John Sykes explained:
“Some people don’t understand the meaning of rock and roll. If you go back to the original sound in the ’50s, it was everything. As Missy Elliot calls it, it was a gumbo. It just became known as rock and roll. So when I hear people say, “You should just change it to the Music Hall of Fame,” rock and roll has pretty much covered all of that territory. 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. Once they hear it that way, they understand.
“The best story to convey this was when a great friend of mine, Jay-Z, got inducted a few years ago. I was so excited. But he told me, “Rock is dead. It should be called the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame.” And I said, “Well, hip-hop is rock and roll.” He goes, “No, it isn’t.” And I said, “We’ve got to do a better job explaining it. Little Richard, Otis Redding, Chuck Berry — these artists were the cornerstones of rock and roll. If you look at the sounds over the years, those artists ended up influencing hip-hop.” Jay-Z hemmed and hawed, but he showed up to the ceremony. That made me feel like we had done our job to communicate that rock and roll is open to all.”
