Blues
Eric Clapton criticizes the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The legendary singer and guitarist Eric Clapton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times. Once as a solo act and two other times as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. In an interview with The Real Music Observer (Transcribed by Ultimate Guitar), the musician criticized the institution calling it a “frat boys club”. He also said that artists like J.J. Cale and Paul Rodgers should definitely be inducted.
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Eric Clapton criticizes the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
“I came to that thing, whatever it is. I think of it as a frat boys club that happened to lure in. And I think the fact that they had Ahmet Ertegun (Atlantic Records president and chairman of RRHF) was the ticket for me. He was doing it for people like Ruth Brown and The Drifters, all those early Atlantic artists that were being forgotten.”
“And then, it just kind of started to snowball. I was very suspicious because, obviously, the (Rolling Stone) magazine was involved. My dear friend Robbie (Robertson) was also part of the ticket. I thought, ‘Well, he was the one that persuaded me to do it.'”
“(Then) I did it with Jack and Ginger. I remember the day we (Cream) rehearsed for the show because we were going to play a song after we’ve been inducted. And something happened, and people were there. The techs that were in the room with us had never seen us play.”
“We haven’t seen one another for 20 years, and we clicked immediately into the group that we had always had. And it was magic, and I thought, ‘Okay, if this is why we’re doing this Rock and Roll Hall, then I’ll go with it,” Eric Clapton said.
Why J.J. Cale and Paul Rodgers were not inducted according to Clapton
“But the fact that someone like J.J. has never even been suggested is proof of what that thing is or proof of what it isn’t. It’s not like he’ll ever come up. It’s not their thing. I don’t know what their thing is. But he’s too anonymous for those guys.” Then he talked about Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Company): “He’s a rebel. It’s not a place for rebels. It’s establishment stuff.”
J.J. Cale was an American musician who was a huge influence to artists like Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Neil Young and Waylon Jennings. Two Eric Clapton hits, for example: “Cocaine” and “After Midnight” were written and originally recorded by Cale.
Another famous song is “Call Me The Breeze”, which was covered by Lynyrd Skynyrd on their second album “Second Helping” In 1974.
