Dolly Parton, the living legend of music, movies, books, and vital medical research, was given some flowers on Wednesday (May 4) when the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame revealed she’s part of the Class of 2022. Dolly, 76, in her typical fashion, embraced this news with humility, gratitude, and charm. “I am honored and humbled by the fact that I have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” tweeted Dolly. “Of course, I will accept it gracefully. Thanks to everyone that voted for me and to everyone at the @rockhall. I will continue to work hard and try to live up to the honor.
I am honored and humbled by the fact that I have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Of course I will accept it gracefully. Thanks to everyone that voted for me and to everyone at the @rockhall. I will continue to work hard and try to live up to the honor. pic.twitter.com/kDTw8u7a1c
— Dolly Parton (@DollyParton) May 4, 2022
Along with Dolly Parton, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced that the Class of 2022 included Eminem, Duran Duran, Lionel Richie, Carly Simon, Eurythmics, and Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo. In the Music Excellence Award, metal icons Judas Priest were honored for their work pioneering the genre, as were Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, the members of Morris Day & The Time who became renowned songwriters and producers. Harry Belafonte and Elizabeth Cotten were awarded the Early Influence Award. Allen Grubman, an executive and founder of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, joined Jimmy Iovine and Sylvia Robinson to receive this year’s Ahmet Ertegun Award.
“This diverse group of inductees each had a profound impact on the sound of youth culture and helped change the course of rock & roll,” said John Sykes, Chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, said in a statement announcing this year’s inductees. “Their music moved generations and influenced so many artists that followed.”
To be eligible, artists must have released their first record 25 years prior to induction. Most of this year’s inductees were on the ballot for the first time: Eminem, Duran Duran, Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie, and Carly Simon. This is also Eminem’s first year of eligibility. Dolly Parton initially tried to withdraw her name from this year’s nominees under the idea that she “earned that right” because she never recorded a rock n’ roll album. However, Dolly later told NPR’s Morning Edition that she would “accept it gracefully.”
Beck, DEVO, Kate Bush, Fela Kuti, the MC5, the New York Dolls, Rage Against The Machine, Dionne Warwick, and A Tribe Called Quest filled out the rest of this year’s nominees. “If you’re an artist who has bothered to put yourself out there and get up on stage and expose yourself the way you did to failure and criticism, I think that you do like some kind of recognition if it comes your way,” Gerald Casale of DEVO told HollywoodLife in April. “[B]ecause of what you went through, because of the insecurity of what it’s like to expose yourself to criticism and failure, the way any band does when they get up in front of people.”
The 37th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will take place on Saturday, November 5, 2022, at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. The Induction Ceremony will air later on HBO and stream on HBO Max, along with a radio simulcast on SiriusXM’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Radio channel 310 and SiriusXM’s Volume channel 106.