Ju ne, 2017 RollingStoneAus.com | Rolling Stone | 13KeeponRockin’intheFreeWorld
(1)Vedder and daughters Olivia (top) and Harper.(2)Snoop:
“[Tupac] saw more potential in me than I saw in myself.”(3)
Letterman with a guitar Vedder gave his son.(4)Yes’ Trevor
Rabin, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, Ament, Lee (from left).Tupacbecamethefirstsolorapper to
enter the Hall of Fame. His old Death Row
Records labelmate Snoop Dogg gave a hi-
larious speech that included a story about
atriptheytooktoSouthAmerica shortly
before Tupac’s death. “Do you know what
parasailingis?”Snoopasked.“Because
we damn sure didn’t.... The boat pulls
awayandwestartfloatingupinthe air. We
scared as a motherfucker.” Since Tupac had
no children and his mother died in 2016,
Snoopacceptedtheaward,andthen par-
ticipatedinamedleyoftherapper’s songs
with Alicia Keys, YG and others.
Pharrell inducted his “Get Lucky” col-
laborator Rodgers, praising the Chic front-
man’s willingness to take a back seat while
working with fellow hitmakers. Rodgers
struck a humble note during his speech
too:“Thisaward,whichisamazing to me,
is really because of all the people that have
allowedmetocomeintotheirlivesand just
join their band. Be it Mick Jagger, be it Ma-
donna, Duran Duran, Pharrell Williams,
Diana Ross, Sister Sledge. Thank you all.”
Like Journey, Yes have spent the past
several years touring without their originallead singer. The surviving members now
tour in two warring camps: Yes and Yes
Featuring Anderson, Rabin, Wakeman.
But they all put years of animosity aside,
teaming up for a bombastic “Roundabout”
( joined by Rush bassist Geddy Lee, who
inducted the group with bandmate Alex
Lifeson) and “Owner of a Lonely Heart”,
in which Rick Wakeman ventured into the
audience with a keytar. “It was a one-off ,”
says Wakeman of reuniting with his former
mates. “Never to happen again.”
Wakeman gave one of the funniest (not
to mention fi lthiest) speeches in Hall of
Fame history. He made virtually no men-
tion of the band, instead cracking jokes
about a prostate exam and an early sexual
experience. “My father was an Elvis im-
personator,” he deadpanned. “But there
wasn’t much call for that in 1947.” Back-
stage, Wakeman explained his approach:
“I thought, ‘Do I go on and thank all the
diff erent guys in the band that I’ve played
with?’ Everyone is going to say that. So I
thought I’d just have a bit of fun.”
Wakeman, it turned out, was the per-
fect opening act for David Letterman, whostepped in to induct Pearl Jam after an ill
Neil Young cancelled (“He swallowed a
harmonica,” Letterman speculated).
“In 1994, these young men risked their
careers by going after those beady-eyed,
bloodthirsty weasels [at Ticketmaster],”
Letterman said of Pearl Jam. “And be-
cause they stood up to the corporations, I’m
happy to say, today every concert ticket in
the United States of America is free.” Let-
terman also proved to be a knowledgeable
Pearl Jam fan, heaping praise on their 1992
B side “Yellow Ledbetter”. At one point, he
showed off a guitar that Eddie Vedder gave
to his son, Harry, at one of Letterman’s
fi nal broadcasts, in 2015.
Vedder was undoubtedly the crowd fa-
vourite of the night: His brief cameos on the
overhead screens through-
out the show elicited deaf-
ening chants from the
Pearl Jam army in the au-
dience. During the group’s
acceptance speeches,
bassist Jeff Ament staged
a quiet protest with a T-
shirt displaying the names
of 100 acts that have yet to
be inducted into the Hall
of Fame, from Hüsker Dü
to Bon Jovi. Vedder gave
moving testimony, touch-
ing on climate change and
his mother’s early support.
He also shouted out all fi ve
of Pearl Jam’s past drum-
mers (Letterman joked
that the entire balcony was
full of former Pearl Jam
drummers). “We have the
great Dave Abbruzzese,” Vedder said, re-
ferring to their mid-Nineties member who
had criticised the band for not lobbying the
Hall of Fame to induct him too. “You are a
great drummer!”
Vedder remembered life before fame,
when he worke d a s a se c u r it y g ua rd , w at ch-
ing Letterman’s show to pass the time.
“Dave was my co-pilot,” the frontman said.
“To have him up here, it’s an honour.... I
feel like we’re about halfway to deserv-
ing an accolade of this stature. But this is
very encouraging.”
The band then blazed through three
Nineties classics: a ferocious “Alive”, with
original drummer Dave Krusen; “Given
to Fly”; and an emotional “Better Man”.
Ved der gave a shout-out to Young, before
kicking into “Rockin’ in the Free World”.
They were backed by many of the evening’s
inductees and guests, including Schon,
who was still processing the heavy emo-
tions of the night. “I had tears in my eyes,”
he said later. “I know I’ve said in the past
that I didn’t really care about the Hall of
Fame, since we were never up for induc-
tion. But I do now that we’re in.”2341CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: KEVIN MAZUR/WIREIMAGE FOR ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME; KEVIN KANE/WIREIMAGE FOR ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME; JEFF KRAVITZ/FILMMAGIC, 2