The 2023 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees are Sheryl Crow, George Michael, Willie Nelson, the Spinners, Rage Against The Machine, Kate Bush, and Missy Elliott.

This year’s Musical Excellence Award will go to Bernie Taupin, Al Kooper, and Chaka Khan.

Musical Influence Awards will go to Link Wray and DJ Kool Herc, with Ahmet Ertegun Awards going to Soul Train pioneer Don Cornelius.

This year’s Rock Hall induction ceremony will be held on Friday, November 3rd at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

The 2023 Rock Hall nominees that did not make the final cut are Soundgarden, Iron Maiden, Cyndi Lauper, Warren Zevon, Joy Division/New Order, A Tribe Called Quest, and the White Stripes.

Although over the past 25 years, Sheryl Crow’s name, face, and music is among the most recognizable in entertainment — she doesn’t let fame and public opinion get in the way of her approach to music: “I have a different kind of relationship to fame and to the world outside. It’s much more from a rebellious teenager kind of energy. But musically, I’m sure it makes its way in, but it doesn’t really influence the way I approach music.”

Bernie Taupin said that Elton John becoming a singer/songwriter was never some desperate need for adulation — but simply a way to promote their songs: “When we first got together, obviously, there was no intention, or plan for Elton to make records. I mean, it really came about, simply because we couldn’t get anybody else to record our songs.”

While Down Under back in 1986, Elton John sang the praises of his friend George Michael to legendary journalist Molly Meldrum: “I mean, I first really got hooked into Wham! was ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go,” which for me, was the best, like, Motown record — everyone tries to make a Motown sound. . . The bass playing on that, that’s what hooked me. And George’s song idea — he’s only 21, he’s been writing songs for two years and he writes ‘Careless Whisper.’ Bernie (Taupin) and I, our songs after two years were absolutely ‘horrible!”)

Back in 2007, George Michael appeared on Britain’s Parkinson show and explained that his free and rebellious nature was a callback to a previous era: “I think I’m of my generation, only most of my generation have got no balls anymore (laughter) — basically. Y’know, I think my generation were taught that it was okay — especially as a musician — to speak your mind, and we’re living in a time when it’s not okay and we’re trying in an effort to return to ‘family values’ to pretend that some of the things that happened between 1960 and 1985 didn’t happen.”

Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello told us a while back that Rage’s message has been in plain sight all along: “I would say that the message is not very well-hidden. In the lyrics of every song and on every T-shirt it’s pretty clear what we’re about. I think that it’s insulting to, y’know, members of the audience to say that, ‘Oh they don’t get it,’ or, ‘They don’t pay attention.’ Because I know when I was in the Clash’s audience, I got it. When I was in Public Enemy’s audience, I got it. When I’m in Fugazi’s audience, I get it.”

The great Chaka Khan told us she likes being her own boss in the studio and never fails to find her artistic process completely liberating: “I just thought creativity while I was recording, while I was in the studio — totally creative — and now the other aspects have come into play. And yes, I have to think about all the things I never had to think of before and didn’t want to! (Laughs) It’s not like I wasn’t aware of what was going on. I was aware but I never had any power. I was never empowered in those areas, and now I am.”