CLEVELAND, Ohio — Sixteen acts are on the ballot to become members of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as the Class of 2020. Five or six will make it, and the debate will begin.
In the immortal words of Rush’s Alex Lifeson, “Blah, blah, blah.”
Look, it’s not like an SEC officiating crew took away a touchdown from any rocker, not nearly that important. But it’s all personal and subjective. That’s how these things are.
But the real thing is something we’ll talk about in a minute, and is the real point of this column: the Ahmet Ertegun Award winners. Who are NOT on any ballot and who instead are chosen by some secret committee.
There are more than a thousand “official” Rock Hall balloters who will pick from the 16 nominees — the Dave Matthews Band, Pat Benatar (with hubby Neil Giraldo), the Doobie Brothers, Soundgarden, Judas Priest, Whitney Houston (gack!), Depeche Mode, Thin Lizzy, Todd Rundgren, Motorhead, Nine Inch Nails, T. Rex, the Notorious B.I.G., Kraftwerk, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan and MC5. Those voters include certain industry insiders — publicists, a few critics, some label executives — and all the living inductees.
Oh, and of course, there’s the “fan ballot,” a savvy publicity tool that means next to nothing, considering that the picks of nearly 8 million “civilians” will be combined into a single ballot for five acts.
Don’t bet on the official tally going the way we outsiders think. Whitney Houston is running a distant sixth right now, nearly 300,000 votes behind fan fave the Dave Matthews Band and trailing No. 5 Judas Priest by 60,000 or so votes. And Notorious B.I.G. is in 13th place with fewer than 250,000 votes. Yet I can almost guarantee one of them will be named an inductee.
To be fair, Motorhead and Nine Inch Nails, who also have their advocates, aren’t doing much better, with 450,000 and 345,000 votes, respectively — well out of the running — and I fully expect Motorhead, a beloved fan favorite because of the aura of the late Lemmy Kilmister, to be inducted. Nor would I be surprised if NIN, with its Cleveland ties courtesy of Trent Reznor, makes the cut, since the inductions in May will be here.
First place with fans or not, I don’t think the industry will go with DMB, and it’s kind of iffy whether they’ll back Benatar and Clevelander Giraldo, who are in second place. But the Doobies, Soundgarden and Priest, who round out the top five for fan voting, are pretty solid.
So, the politics mean the five performer inductees — assuming it’s limited to that — will be the Doobies, Soundgarden, Priest, Motorhead and either Biggie or Whitney Houston. Either of the latter would be a travesty, but it’s happened before (ABBA, Janet Jackson, etc.).
But let’s talk about the real political thing, the Ahmet Ertegun Award winners for non-performers. They could be sidemen, early influencers or people in the background. Those potential inductees are not on any ballot and are tapped in secret.
Now we all know that things secret are anathema to any journalist, as we believe that few good things happen behind closed doors. But there’s a chance the committee can fix some of that this time around, and right several wrongs at the same time.
How? By starting with the inductions of three men: Peter Asher, Irving Azoff and Don Cornelius.
Let’s start with Cornelius, who died in 2012. The guy behind “Soul Train” pretty much introduced white America to soul music, via the TV show. Elephant pants, dance moves, aviator glasses and “that voice”: He was as important a figure in many ways as Dick Clark, and Clark was inducted in 1993. Uh, why has he never even been considered, at least as far as those of us on the outside know?
Then there’s Azoff, the legendarily evil manager of the Eagles. When they were inducted, Don Henley noted that “Irving is an [expletive], but he’s OUR [expletive].” Azoff, who has worked behind the scenes his entire career, quite frankly has had a lot of influence on who HAS gotten in (he picked up the Doobies in 2016, and all of a sudden, they’re out on tour with Michael McDonald AND nominated for the Rock Hall for the first time in their storied career).
I don’t know him, but by all accounts, and judging from people I do know who know him, he’s not a nice man to have against you. I won’t say, “if you don’t wear orange and brown, you don’t matter,” but the sentiment is there.
But the one I push above all others is Asher. A lot of people first heard of him as half of the British duo Peter and Gordon, with a song written by his sister’s boyfriend, a dude named McCartney, called “A World Without Love.” Guy was eventually in a band called the Beatles. Maybe you heard of ’em?
Asher went on to become the first A&R head at the Beatles’ Apple Records. He’s just written a fascinating new book called “The Beatles: From A to Zed.” It traces the band’s discography from songs that started with the letter “A” to ... well, you can figure that out. It’s full of backstories and insights.
Anyway, when he left Apple and came to the States, Asher ended up as manager for James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, who also are in the Rock Hall. Ronstadt in particular has been in the news lately, with her “Kennedy Center Honors” appearance and her continuation of a lifetime of being outspoken, most recently comparing Donald Trump to Hitler.
But it was in 2014, on the eve of her induction into the hall, that we spoke about Asher and what he meant to her.
“Peter was essential,” said Ronstadt in that telephone interview. “I don’t think I would’ve gotten anywhere if I hadn’t run into Peter.
“Somebody else would see me, and say, ‘You’re a country singer; go to Nashville [or] you go to Bakersfield,’ ” she said. “The deciding factor with Peter was ‘Heart Like a Wheel.’ He thought it was a great song. ... That song became a signature piece for me.”
Asher has won Grammys for his music and for a comedy album with Robin Williams. He’s produced everyone from Ronstadt and Taylor to Cher, Diana Ross, 10,000 Maniacs and more.
He is, without question, the most deserving person still breathing when it comes to induction into the Rock Hall. And, to prove Ronstadt’s point, one of the most humble, as he showed in an interview with me back in 2013. I asked him about why he hadn’t been inducted yet, and he coyly — and graciously — turned the question around.
“Because they haven’t nominated me,” he said with a little laugh. “They do have a spot for non-performers, and I do cover various bases. But if nominated, I will serve.
“The most important thing,” Asher said, “is that we get Linda Ronstadt in, long before thinking about getting me in there.”
Well, Peter, Linda is in there. It’s your turn, sir. It’s your turn.
Also by Chuck Yarborough
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