Rock Hall Nominees Revealed

Jim Brickman Reveals the Rock Hall Nominees
LIVE from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio

Jim Brickman LIVE from the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame – Interview Transcription

Jim Brickman: Hey! It’s Jim Brickman coming to you live this morning from the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. We are in the studio right here for a big announcement with my friend John Gurkey, who is the director of Visitor Engagement at the Rock Hall.
John Gurkey: That’s right Jim, I’m happy to be here, and it is a very exciting day for us here at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame today.
JB: Yeah, announcing the nominees for 2018 today.
JG: That’s right! 19 nominees. It’s really a diverse class, really represents all different styles and eras of rock and roll music, which is perfect, cause that’s what we celebrate here every single day.
JB: And before we get to some of the highlights of the nominees, what I think is really cool, is that people get to vote. It’s not just a committee here that selects who’s going to be in the hall of fame.
JG: That’s right!

The voting is actually live right now. Fans can vote, so if you have a favorite go to Rockhall.com, cast your vote, you can vote often and early, and voting will go until about early December. There’s about 900 total voters across the country, across the world, and all the living inductees get a vote.

JB: Who is that 900 made up of other than superstars and other hall of fame inductees?
JG: A lot of music industry executives, and journalists, and educators, writers, scholars-
JB: Cause I don’t recall being asked to be a voter, so I’m just curious being a musician and from Cleveland and all… but that’s okay—
JG: I’ll see what I can do. I’ll put in a good word.
JB: I’m curious—I travel a lot, and when I say I’m from Cleveland people always say, Oh yeah, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!— How did the Rock Hall end up being here? People ask that all the time.
JG: Sure! Well there is certainly a historical story. Allen Freed, and we’re actually here in the Allen Freed Studio right now—he was a really important radio jockey back in the earliest days of rock ‘n’ roll music, and he’s the one who really popularizes that term, “rock n roll.”
JB: Yeah, he coined it!
JG: Yeah, he’s doing it right here in Cleveland, he’s putting on some of the first rock n roll concerts ever. But even through the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, the radio scene here in Cleveland?

We’ve always been a place where artists could really break out. Bruce Springsteen owes a lot of his early success to Cleveland, David Bowie, some of his earliest American gigs, right here in Cleveland. So there’s kind of a great rock n roll story.

Jim Brickman Reveals the Rock Hall Nominees –  Interview Transcription

Jim Brickman: So John, lay it on me, hit some of the highlights of who is on the nomination list this year.

John Gurkey: Alright, so some of the ones that fans all around the world are gonna know—and again, all nineteen are great—Bon Jovi, this is their second time being nominated. You know those songs, “Wanted Dead or Alive,” “You Give Love A Bad Name.” The Moody Blues, another first time nominee, and the Moody Blues fans, they’re amazing, so if you’re out there, we hear you every day. The letters and the email, so it’s great. I think if you’re a Moody Blues fan, it’s great day for sure.
JB: And you can vote!

JG: Eurythmics—so you know, Dave Stewart, Annie Lenox. Such an important group from the 80s and the MTV era.
JB: Let’s vote for that. And The Cars? That’s awesome.
JG: The Cars. I mean, hook after hook after hook, just what I needed. My best friend’s girl. And this is a group that met in Cleveland! They met up in Cleveland, ended up in Boston—

JB: Talk about the 80s: Dire Straits?
JG: Dire Straits, I mean, one of the great rock bands of the 80s. They are blues-based with a little country tinge to them as well, great songwriting, Mark Knopfler, one of the great guitar players of rock and roll.
JB: Also, this is interesting, cause I don’t think of him as having a twenty-five year career— LL Cool J.
JG: Yeah! LL Cool J was still a teenager when Def Jam Records out of New York chose him to be the face of the second wave of hip-hop music in the 80s. I think that attitude, that spirit, is so much a part of rock and roll music.
JB: The definition of Rock n Roll, it’s really music—

John Gurkey: It’s very expansive, and we love that. It’s not just 4 dudes with a guitar, but rock n roll is many faces, rock n roll is many sounds, rock n roll is many styles. So what I love about this year’s nineteen nominees, it’s really representative of that.

JG: We have someone like Sister Rosetta Tharpe—which, if you don’t know her, google her, check her out on youtube. She influenced Elvis Presley! Bringing the electric guitar into gospel music.
JB: A couple other nominations, people you can go on and vote for if you’re a fan— The Zombies, Nina Simone, Rage Against The Machine—
JG: They’re newly eligible. They and Radiohead, they are the two groups where this year is their first year eligible.
JB: And again, a wide range of styles. Thanks a lot of joining us from my hometown! Really proud to be coming from you from the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

Watch Jim Brickman & John Gurkey LIVE from the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Who are Brickman, Bob & Brynne Voting For?  Listen Below to Find Out!

Bon Jovi
Brynne – I really think he should get in this year.  When we were leaving the Rock Hall they were playing “Livin’ on A Prayer” and you forget – that is a great song!  I love that song!

Eurythmics
Brynne – I would really love to see them get in.
Jim – Me too!  There’s another example of the Jim Brickman challenge in my career.  So like Dave Stewart ‘Oh he’s just the – it’s really Annie Lennox’ but it isn’t.  Like it’s whoever’s singing, ya know?  When you think of them, you picture her.
Bob – Dave Stewart was the guy pulling all the strings musically and every time I hear a Eurythmics song, I’m like – I just love the song…
Jim – All unique – you know it’s them the minute you hear it.  That’s the mark of a true, unique artist.

The Cars
Bob – Another band that had a really unique sound, was groundbreaking in New Wave.  And they released like 29 singles over the course of like 7 years and 18 or 19 of them charted.  I mean it was really just a long run of sustained success and just dominated FM radio for years and great songs!

Remember you can Vote for your Favorite Artist!
Click Here to Cast Your Vote for this year’s Inductees!

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