Legendary Wrecking Crew bassist Carol Kaye — who played on innumerable pop hits from the likes of the Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, Simon & Garfunkel, Barbra Streisand and many more in the '60s and '70s as the sole regular woman member of the session musician collective — has declined her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
When the Class of 2025 Rock Hall inductees were announced back in April, Kaye was selected alongside Thom Bell and Nicky Hopkins to receive the Musical Excellence Award. However, in a since-deleted Facebook post [via Variety], the musician said that not only is she not planning on attending the ceremony, but she's also rejecting the induction because it doesn't reflect the ethos of teamwork that defined her career as a session musician.
"People have been asking: NO I won't be there……. I am declining the rrhof awards show (and denny tedesco process)…..turning it down because it wasn't something that reflects the work that studio musicians do and did in the golden era of the 1960s recording hits," Kaye wrote. "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 1930s, I was never a 'wrecker' at all….that's a terrible[,] insulting name."
She added, "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……..Thank-You [sic] for understanding."
Read Kaye's full post below. She joins the list of those who have opted to reject their Rock Hall induction offers, including the Sex Pistols, Axl Rose and Dolly Parton (who later changed her mind).
People have been asking: NO I won't be there……. I am declining the rrhof awards show (and denny tedesco process)…..turning it down because it wasn't something that reflects the work that studio musicians do and did in the golden era of the 1960s recording hits…….. 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 1930s, I was never a 'wrecker' at all….that's a terrible[,] insulting name.
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, w/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 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)………..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……..Thank-You [sic] for understanding.