NEED TO KNOW
- Chubby Checker stated at a latest present that he’ll be skipping the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame induction in November
- The musician, 83, stated he’d relatively play for his followers
- The Rock Corridor induction will happen in Los Angeles on Nov. 8
Chubby Checker is about to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame after practically 40 years of eligibility this November — however he gained’t be there.
The musician, 83, revealed at a latest live performance that he’s selecting to not attend the Los Angeles ceremony this fall, as he’d relatively play for his followers.
“I advised my supervisor, ‘Be sure once we go to the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame, the induction, that I’m doing what I like doing essentially the most: Being in entrance of an viewers. A reside viewers, not a tv viewers,’” Checker stated in fan video shared to social media late final month and posted on Future Rock Legends. “So what she did [was], she obtained me a present. And the Rock Corridor says, ‘We wish you to come back right here at the present time and be right here.'”
Checker continued, “I stated, ‘We’re not coming.’ ‘You’re what?’ I stated, ‘We’re not coming. We now have a gig.’ ‘Properly, neglect about your gig.’ We always remember about gigs.”
“The Twist” singer, who doesn’t have any official future concert events listed on-line, says he additionally desires to show to any naysayers that he can nonetheless groove.
“Chubby goes to the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame. They are saying, ‘He’s an previous man. He’s in all probability retired. He’s not doing something. Perhaps he has crutches and he’s coming to the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame to get his little award and return dwelling,’” Checker stated. “I says, ‘No. Let’s be doing a present like I am doing at the moment to point out I’m alive and nicely and the viewers is great and my dream is being fulfilled and the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame is occurring all on the identical time.”
Checker (né Ernest Evans) is greatest identified for hits like “The Twist,” “The Fly,” “The Hucklebuck,” and extra. He has been eligible for Rock Corridor induction because the very first-class in 1986, although 2025 marked his first nomination. He’ll be inducted alongside Cyndi Lauper, Outkast, Dangerous Firm, the late Joe Cocker, Soundgarden and the White Stripes.
In a YouTube video uploaded by a fan, Checker appeared to stage his personal Rock Corridor induction ceremony, as he was offered with an award and gave a speech to a digicam at a present in Des Plaines, Sick. on July 27.
“I thank all of my friends [that] have elected me, and all my great followers. Over all this time I recognize you a lot. The Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame, I believe you for making me a member of the household,” he stated within the video. “After I undergo Cleveland within the automotive, I’ll suppose completely in another way than earlier than, as a result of a light-weight has gone in my life. And once I undergo Cleveland, I’ll simply be illuminated by all the great issues that has occurred to me in my lifetime. I’m so grateful. I recognize it. And I can’t say how great it isi that this has occurred to me, and I’m alive to get pleasure from it.”
Checker gained’t be the primary artist to skip out on attending the Rock Corridor induction ceremony. Paul McCartney didn’t attend when The Beatles have been inducted in 1988, citing ongoing authorized and enterprise disputes together with his former bandmates and report label, and neither did Axl Rose, who skipped his Weapons N’ Roses induction in 2012.
In June, legendary session musician Carol Kaye — who was set to obtain the Musical Excellence Award — declined her invitation to this yr’s ceremony, writing in a deleted Fb submit that “it wasn’t one thing that displays the work that Studio Musicians do and did within the golden ear of the Nineteen Sixties Recording Hits.”
Kaye, 90, was a member of the Wrecking Crew within the ‘60s and ‘70s, and performed bass for bands just like the Seashore Boys and the Monkees. In her submit, she emphasised that she was all the time a part of a “group” and “not a solo artist in any respect.” She additionally criticized the group’s title: “I used to be by no means a ‘wrecker’ in any respect….that’s a horrible insulting title.”
This yr’s Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame induction ceremony will air reside from Los Angeles on Nov. 8, and followers can stream it reside on Disney+.