Carol Kaye rejects Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction
Carol Kaye has revealed she will not be accepting her ‘Music Excellence Award’ at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In April, Kaye was included in the Class of 2025 alongside The White Stripes, Bad Company, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, Soundgarden, OutKast, Salt N Pepa, Warren Zevon, Thom Bell, Nicky Hopkins, and Lenny Waronker.
However, Kaye won’t be in attendance for the ceremony, and the bassist has now explained her reasoning in a lengthy social media post.
“People have been asking: NO I won’t be there,” she wrote on Facebook on June 18th. “I am declining the RRHOF awards show (and Denny Tedesco process)…turning it down because it wasn’t something that reflects the work that Studio Musicians do and did in the golden era of the 1960s Recording Hits.”
Kaye, who was a member of the prolific Wrecking Crew throughout the 1960s and ’70s, emphasised that the recordings she contributed to was part of a team effort, writing, “[Y]ou are always part of a TEAM, not a solo artist at all….there were always 350-400 Studio Musicians (AFM Local 47 Hollywood) working in the busy 1960s, and called that ONLY ….since 1930s.”
She then criticised the name Wrecking Crew despite appearing in Danny Tedesco’s 2008 documentary on their story, adding, “I was never a ‘wrecker’ at all….that’s a terrible insulting name.”
Kaye then provided further background to her career, explaining, “Just so you know, as a working Jazz musician (soloing jazz guitar work) in the 1950s working since 1949, I was accidentally asked to record records by producer Bumps Blackwell in 1957, got into recording good music, w/Sam Cooke, other artists and then accidentally placed on Fender Precision Bass mid 1963 when someone didn’t show.”
She added: “I never played bass in my life but being an experienced recording guitarist, it was plain to see that three bass players hired to play ‘dum-de-dum’ on record dates, wasn’t getting it…it was easy for me to invent good bass lines…as a Jazz musician, you invent every note you play…and they used a lot of Jazz musicians (and former big-band experienced musicians on all those rock and pop dates too).”
Kaye concluded her post by again reiterating her point that her music was collaborative and she shouldn’t be exclusively honoured, adding, “I refuse to be part of a process that is something else rather than what I believe in, for others’ benefit and not reflecting on the truth – we all enjoyed working with EACH OTHER.”
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is set to take place on November 8th, 2025, at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles and will be live-streamed on Disney+.
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