Rock Hall chairman on why Hall of Fame won’t be renamed

The chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has said the institution will not be renamed, despite pressure from some artists.

• READ MORE: The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has turned into a museum. Time for change

There has been discussion in recent years about whether the Hall should still use the ‘Rock and Roll’ moniker after inducting a number of artists from outside traditional rock music, including Eminem, A Tribe Called Quest, Mary J. Blige, Dolly Parton and Missy Elliott.

The chairman John Sykes has spoken to Vulture recently, where he revealed that he has no plans to change the name, stating that instead he will “communicate that rock and roll is open to all”.

“I think it’s because some people don’t understand the meaning of rock and roll,” Sykes explained. “If you go back to the original sound in the ’50s, it was everything. As Missy Elliott 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.”

Sykes spoke about Jay-Z‘s initial reluctance to accept his own induction in 2021. “He told me, ‘Rock is dead. It should be called the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame,’” Sykes recalled. “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.’”

Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello recently made similar statements about the Rock Hall. “I will say that one thing that people get wrong is that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame should be just for rock ’n’ roll bands,” he said. “That’s not what it’s for. Public Enemy is more rock ’n’ roll than 95 percent of all the hair metal bands that ever picked up an instrument, you know?”

He went on to explain what he believes are the true criteria that should qualify artists for the Hall. “It’s music that has spirit to it, like a youth spirit,” he said. “I think rock ’n’ roll should have a very, very broad sense. I think there’s room for a lot of different genres.”

Last year, Cher, Ozzy Osbourne, Kool & The Gang, Peter Frampton, Foreigner and Dave Matthews Band were inducted, as well as Blige and A Tribe Called Quest.