Ringo Starr Inducted, Green Day Shine at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
No single blues guitarist could possible take the place of Stevie Ray Vaughan fronting Double Trouble, so Mayer, Doyle Bramhall II and Gary Clark Jr. all shared the burden alongside Jimmie Vaughan. They tore into “Pride and Joy” and “Texas Flood” before unplugging and letting Jimmie wrap up the set alone with “Six Strings Down,” a a tribute song he wrote for his brother in 1994. “Jesus, Mary and Joseph been listening to your playing,” he sang. “Heaven done called another blues-stringer back home.”
It was a heavy moment, though things lightened up pretty quickly when Fall Out Boy came out to induct Green Day. All four members stood together, though Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump did all the talking. “The more immersed in their world I got, the more I could tell that this band was one of the greats,” Stump said. “Every sound that came out of these three guys was as important to the entire thing. You couldn’t remove one guy. The silhouette of Billie Joe playing guitar would be as recognizable a posture as Michael Jordan’s mid-air dunk.”
Green Day were the only honored act of the evening that still pack stadiums and sell millions of records, and they seemed surprised to be entering the Hall of Fame only a couple years after they all turned 40. Billie Joe Armstrong dressed up like a prom king in 1979, and delivered a passionate speech about how music changed his life, name-checking everyone from the Kinks and Cheap Trick to Led Zeppelin, Van Halen and even super obscure California punk bands like Sewer Trout and Nasal Sex.
Two days earlier, Green Day played their first gig in over a year at the House of Blues in Cleveland, dipping deep into their pre-Dookie catalog and even reuniting with original drummer John Kiffmeyer. This time around, they opted for the hits, thrilling the crowd with “American Idiot,” “When I Come Around” and “Basket Case.” They didn’t have any signs of rust for all the time off, and Armstrong even ducked under Dirnt’s legs while playing a guitar solo. He’d occasionally pause and yell out “Cleveland!” or “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!,” still clearly in a minor state of shock that he’s now a member.
The crowd was less familiar with the music of the early 1950s R&B group the “5” Royales, though Booker T. and the MG’s guitarist Steve Cropper did an excellent job explaining their historical importance in just a matter of minutes, and how their songs have been covered by everyone from Ray Charles to the Mamas and the Papas to Mick Jagger. There are no surviving members, so Johnny Tanner’s brother Fred accepted the award on their behalf.
The most enduring song by the “5” Royals is “Dedicated to the One I Love,” which Leon Bridges sang during the In Memorial segment of the evening backed by Paul Shaffer and an expanded lineup of the CBS Orchestra. The song transitioned into “When a Man Loves a Woman,” by 2005 Hall of Fame inductee Percy Sledge, who died just four days before the ceremony.