“You are always part of a team, not a solo artist at all”: Why Carol Kaye has declined her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction invitation
Carol Kaye, session veteran and one of the most prolific bassists of all time, is the latest musician to turn down the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s invitation this fall.
Kaye, who’s set to be inducted as part of the Hall’s Class of 2025, says she won’t be attending the ceremony because it “wasn’t something that reflects the work that studio musicians do and did in the golden era of the 1960s recording hits.”
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The 90-year-old, estimated to have played on over 10,000 recording sessions, including works by the Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel and Frank Zappa, was part of a group of session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew during the Sixties and Seventies.
“People have been asking: NO I won’t be there,” Kaye writes of her decision in a now-deleted Facebook post. “I am declining the rrhof awards show and Denny Tedesco process [director of the 2008 documentary The Wrecking Crew]”.
Underlining the collaborative nature of studio musicians, the bassist explains, “You 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 the 1930s, I was never a ‘Wrecker’ at all…. that’s a terrible insulting name.”
Kaye also clarifies that she found her way to the bass not by choice, but by chance.
“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, with Sam Cooke, other artists and then accidentally placed on Fender Precision Bass mid 1963 when someone didn’t show.”
“I never played bass in my life,” she continues. “But being an experienced recording guitarist, it was plain to see that 3 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 ends her note by declaring: “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.”
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Carol joins a growing list of musicians who’ve taken issue with the Rock Hall’s decisions and supposed credibility.
Duran Duran bassist John Taylor previously called their own induction a farce, saying, “It’s such a joke that Duran Duran are in anything with ‘rock and roll’ over the top of it.”
Liam Gallagher was even less diplomatic when Oasis was nominated in 2024. “Fuck the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – it’s full of bumbaclarts,” he posted on X. When a fan urged fellow supporters to vote, Gallagher replied, “Don’t waste your time… it’s all a load of bollox.”
Or as he put it most succinctly, “I don’t need some wank award by some geriatric in a cowboy hat.”
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