For Becky Tyner, big, exciting MC5 news arrived out of nowhere on Sunday night.
When it comes to the MC5 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the past two decades have been an odyssey of hope followed by disappointment: The MC5 has been nominated for induction six times — and six times the iconic Detroit band failed to make the cut.
But Tyner, the widow of MC5 singer Rob Tyner, didn't realize there was a potential path to Hall of Fame glory beyond the category of performers where the band continued to find success: the Music Excellence Award.
In fact, that's where the MC5 landed on Sunday when the 2024 class of inductees were revealed live on “American Idol.”
“It was a complete surprise,” Tyner said Monday. “I had no idea – it took me completely by surprise.”
The MC5, whose combustible sound and edgy politics came to define Detroit hard rock before the band caught fire in 1972, was one of three Motor City-connected figures announced Sunday by the RRHOF: Late Motown songwriter and producer Norman Whitfield also received An award for musical excellence will be honored, while Motown executive Suzanne De Passe will receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award, an industry accolade. Performing singers include Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, Kool & the Gang, Mary J. Blige, Ozzy Osbourne, Peter Frampton, and A Tribe Called Quest.
“What could be better than musical excellence?” said Tyner, who noted that she was “extremely proud” of the band’s accomplishment.
She shared a line penned by her late husband on the reissue of the MC5's 1990 debut album, “Kick Out the Jams”: “We rode the roads together and it was tough. We fought battles and suffered slings and arrows and yet we won our share of victories in the big band battles.”
Thus, the MC5 will be part of the 39th Rock and Roll Hall of Famey The induction ceremony is scheduled for October 19 at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland. Details of the presentation, including speakers and performers, have not been announced.
It will be part of a bustling month that includes the publication of “MC5” on October 8 by Hachette Book Group. The long-awaited 304-page oral history draws from work begun by the late Detroit author Ben Edmonds and completed by writers Brad Tolinski and Jan Olski. Celebrations will include a launch event at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Award for Musical Excellence — which this year will also go to Jimmy Buffett and Dionne Warwick — was presented 24 years ago under the “Sidemen” category, and its early winners included Motown musicians James Jamerson and Benny Benjamin.
In 2010, this class was reoriented to its current form, and the RRHOF considers the winners as full inductees. This means that you should not expect the MC5 to be nominated again in the field of performers – that would be redundant.
more: Wayne Kramer's musical legacy lives on as fans mourn rock icon MC5
For Margaret Saadi Kramer, Sunday's news was bittersweet: Her husband, MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, died in February of pancreatic cancer, and while the Detroit-born musician wasn't big on “personal accolades,” he would have appreciated those long-overdue ones. . Hall of Famer, she wrote in a Facebook post.
“It may have been exactly the right thing at exactly the wrong time, however, I am sure he would have been grateful for this recognition and received it like the beautiful free radical that he was,” the RRHOF announced on Sunday, just two and a half months after the guitarist's death. “The underdog was victorious,” she wrote.
The death of Kramer – who was preceded by Tyner, bassist Michael Davis and guitarist Fred Smith – left drummer Dennis Thompson as the last member of the MC5.
In recent years, the band members and estates have often been caught up in personal feuds and legal troubles. But Becky Tyner emphasized that October's inauguration represents a positive moment for everyone.
“This is an amazing celebration of the MC5, and we should all be excited about it,” she said. “This is not the time to bring up anything and anyone old. It's great. Let's be happy about this. It's great for Detroit.”
In her post on Sunday, Margaret Kramer said that the MC5's induction into the Hall of Fame is more a victory for the band's fans than anything else:
“In the end, this joy is theirs – for shouting from rooftops from Bilbao to Tokyo, from London basements to their beloved Detroit (Wayne Kramer) – that the MC5 were truly worthy and that they should be applauded, not blacklisted, for fighting a powerhouse.”
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or [email protected]
