Legendary session bassist Carol Kaye has confirmed she won’t be attending the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony later this year. In a Facebook statement, the 90-year-old musician explained that she is turning down the show because it doesn’t accurately capture the spirit of studio musicians during her heyday.
“NO I won’t be there,” Kaye wrote. “I am declining the [Rock & Roll Hall of Fame] awards show… 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 also took issue with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describing her as a member of the “Wrecking Crew,” a label used to describe the collective work of studio musicians in the 1960s and 1970s. Kaye has long maintained that the name is an inaccurate and insulting label for session players of her era.
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“You are always part of a TEAM, not a solo artist at all,” she continued. “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.”
This isn’t a new stance for Kaye. A few days after her induction was announced, she commented on Facebook, “Please know our only name was Studio Musicians.” She later added she was “not sure if I can put up with their ‘wrecker’ ID to go to it.”
One of the most prolific bass guitarists in history, Kaye is estimated to have played on 10,000 recordings during her career spanning over 65 years. This includes work with The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Simon & Garfunkel, Stevie Wonder, Barbra Streisand, The Supremes, and The Temptations.
In her statement, Kaye gave further insight into how she became one of the greatest bassists of all time:
“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).”
Although Kaye appeared in Denny Tedesco’s 2008 documentary, The Wrecking Crew, she has long stated the collective never used that name until drummer Hal Blaine coined it years later.
Concluding her statement on the induction, Kaye affirmed her position: “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.”
Other members of the Rock Hall’s 2025 Class include The White Stripes, OutKast, Soundgarden, and Cyndi Lauper. The induction ceremony is set to take place at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Saturday, November 8th, and will stream live on Disney+. It will also be available on Hulu following its premiere and will receive a special broadcast airing on ABC.
Content shared from consequence.net.