June 18, 2021 • 26 mins
Post-punk, power pop, classic rock, and new wave all came together in the music of the Cars – a sound you can’t help but sing along to. Brandon Flowers of the Killers professes his love for the Cars through a story of his older brother introducing him to the band. Easton, Hawkes, Robinson, and Ocasek tell the story of the Cars incredible journey, and the thrill of being Inducted into the Rock Hall alongside their personal heroes.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
M H Welcome to Induction Vault, a production of I
Heart Radio and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
M post punk, power pop, classic rock, and new wave
(00:34):
all came together in the music of The Cars, a
sound you can't help but sing along to the night
of their induction, Brandon Flowers of The Killers set the
mood from the moment he walked on stage wearing a
black and white checkerboard jacket that screamed Eidies New Wave.
He professes his love for the Cars through a story
of his older brother introducing him to the band. When
(00:54):
recounting their formation, he mentions that Ricocatican ben Or actually
met in Ohio, and the Cleveland crowd goes wild. Easton Hawks,
Robinson anarcastic I'll take their turn at the microphone, telling
the cars increpredible journey and the thrill of being inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside some
of their personal heroes from the Beatles and Buddy Holly
(01:17):
to Bob Dylan and Elvis. After the band shares their sentiment,
they leave the podium to performance set Jam Packed with It,
which ultimately became Rico Kassick's final show with the band
before his passing in joining eighteen good any hall the
(01:41):
hell are you? I'm Branner Flowers. I'm honored to be
here with you all the night, New Way, post punk,
power pop Tonight. They're all rhyming together into the rock
and roll Hall of Fame on the back of what
has now established as one of the greatest debut albums
ever made. The Cars were named Best New Artist in
(02:04):
the nineteen seventy eight Rolling Stone Reader's poll, and forty
years later, they still sound like a new band of me.
A lot of kids written about rock and roll. People
try to describe it, but it was once said that
writing about music is like dancing about architecture. You just
gotta hear it to know. And when I first heard
The Cars, like so many others, I knew it was
(02:28):
when I was a thirteen year old misfit kid living
in a small town, smack dab in the middle of Utah.
We're talking hold on, we're talking no stoplights, small, We're
talking set all our differences at the water tower after school. Small.
Sometimes it even felt a little bit untouched by the
previous four or five decades, like everything was still in
(02:49):
black and white. Well, my big brother, Shane had the
twelve years on me and the intuition to come and
swoop me up. On the weekends I'd stayed at his
house up in Spanish Fork, another of driving Utah Metropolis
about an hour's drive up the I fifteen, and on
those critical and impressionable rescue missions, he'd played me his music.
(03:11):
There were a lot of great bands pastonomy by my brother,
and there have been many more since. But the Cars
were the first band that I truly fell in love with.
And you never forget your first. Rick Ocassock not okay, sick,
You're all saying it wrong. Rick Ocassack found Bassis, Benjamin
(03:33):
or his Silver and Gold right here in Ohio back
in nineteen Come on Fast friends. They stuck together through
various incarnations, always confident that they were on the right track,
whether it was Milkwood or Richard and the Rabbits. They
(03:54):
had a powerful belief in one another's talent. Okassock and
Horse Wrote eventually had them to Boston, where they found
drummer David Robinson, guitarist Elliott Easton, and in January nineteen
seventies seven added keyboard player Greg Hawks. Now they were
complete a slick machine with a three forty V eight
(04:17):
under the hood that ran on synergy, experimentation, and a
redefined cool. The cars had it all the looks, the hooks, beat,
romance lyrics, killer chorus is guitar solos that piste off
your parents, dazzling new to music videos, not to mention,
not to mention the best song in any movie scene
(04:38):
that featured a girl slowly getting out of a pool
and take her top off. That's right, that's right. I'll
take moving in stereo over the Star Wars team any
day of the week. They existed in the seventies and
eighties in the highly coveted sweet spot where credibility and
acclaim meets huge commer ircial success. Now, I was born
(05:01):
in eighty one, I seen Boogie Knights, and as I
understand it, while everybody else was sweating it up on
the dance floor in their polyester suits or finding out
in the clubs, these guys cruised in and made you
look like you were working too hard. First, you had Rick,
one of the world's most enigmatic and iconic frontman with
his cool detached vocals, an inscrutable Dillon and Velvets fan
(05:30):
with a very stylish jacket, pocket full of power choruses.
Benjamin a gift and multi instrumentalists, also packed some serious heat.
Armed with a haunting baritone and the classic rock chops.
His contributions were crucial part of what made the Cars unique.
Then we have Berkeley trained guitarist Elliott. Where is he at?
(05:53):
I see him as understated as he was, he was
a banded secret weapon with his distinctive and tasteful playing.
He played what was right for the song and still
managed to have his personality explode without stepping on anybody
else's toes. Next is Greg a multi instrumentalist with a
penchant for synthesizers and sequencing. It was his inventive spirit
(06:15):
that felt some refreshing and made the Car sounds so right.
Bands today he still try to emulate the balance he
found in marrying keyboards to guitars. And last, but certainly
certainly not least here with me David Robinson. Besides his
genius minimal drumming, David had other talents. It was David
(06:37):
who named the band, finding a spark of magic and
the mundane. The former modern Lover also created the license
plate logo and the iconic album art that spawned a
genre of album art direction all of its own. For decades,
bands have been referencing them and their cover art and
the hopes that maybe from the bins it would scream
try us, You'll love us just like you love the cars.
(07:00):
I might have even made a couple of those myself.
Over the years of cars of achieved, but every kid
who ever sweated out in a garage dreamed of, including
a young Kurt Cobain who chose My best Friends Girl
as one of his first tunes to learn. And what
they achieved was greatness, and they left a comic show
(07:20):
behind them, writing and recording songs that have transcended into classics.
Just what I needed, My best Friend's Girl, good times role.
You might think heartbeat City, since You're gone, Touch and Go,
You're I've got tonight Now, that's good rock and roll,
(07:43):
and good rock and roll is powerful. It can lift
us up, it can pull us through. It can even
transform a little black and white towns in the middle
of nowhere into electrifying color surging with possibility. So when
in his own masterpiece American Pie Don McLean ass, do
you believe in rock and roll? Can music save your
(08:08):
mortal soul the answer. Tonight and forever, we will be
an unequivocal and an emphatic yes. We thank the Cars. Elliott, Great, Dave,
Benjamin and Rick. We're standing on the shoulders of giants.
This band means so much to me in the millions
of others. I know that Benjamin is here sharing with
(08:30):
this moment with you guys. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm
over the moon and it's my great honor to name
duct into the Rock and Roll of Hall of Fame
the Cars. After the break, we'll hear from members of
the Cars on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
(08:52):
induction Bolt. Thank you Brandon for your lovely words. Hi everyone,
my name is Elliott Easton, and I'm very proud to
say that I played guitar with the Cars. Thank you
(09:13):
to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Board for
bestowing this honor upon us. It's a thrill to be
here and to join the ranks of all the incredible
artists who have already been inducted. I'm blessed to be
in a band that has in some way made a
contribution to the music, and this is quite an acknowledgement
of that tonight. Quick story just so you know how
deeply this thing goes. In six I was three years
(09:36):
old and I saw Elvis on TV. I immediately got
a comb and a glass of water and asked my
mom to comb my hair and a spit girl just
like Elvis is. Then I grabbed my Mickey Mouse guitar
and checked myself out in the mirror to try and
look like as much of a rock and roller as
a three year old good. So, from that moment to
lead to this one tonight has been a long, crazy,
(09:58):
twisted river, and I wouldn't and a moment of it.
How lucky I am to have realized and to live
my childhood dreams in a way there's still sort of
a dreamlike quality to all of this. Just a few
words to thank some of the people who have helped
so much along the way. First, I'd like to thank
Jeff Kramer and the rest of the crewde Okay, Management,
(10:20):
Danny Sydney, Cindy Brian. You've all done such a great
job with the band and have made it possible to
do more than I could have ever imagined. Thanks Jeff
for always stirring the ship in the right direction. Thanks
must go to Joe Smith and Electra Records for believing
in us and giving us a chance to make a
record in the first place and get the whole ball
rolling and much later. Thank you to rhinour Records for
(10:43):
doing such a great job with our issues and deluxe
editions of our albums. I still call them albums. Thank
you to our producers, Roy Thomas Baker and Mutt Lange
for doing such a great job of capturing what we
do in the best possible light, enhancing the music and
making it sound right on the radio. It sounds great
on stereos too. In the very early days of the band,
(11:05):
we had an angel in the form of a lady
named Max and Sartori, a top DJ a w b
c N in Boston from the city's biggest FM rock station,
and Max did an amazing thing. She began to play
our demo tape in heavy rotation alongside all the biggest
records of the day. It actually started being reported in
(11:26):
radio tip sheets like the Gavin Report and the rest
of them, so it would say something like the cars
just what I needed, and then the column where the
record label would normally be it said tape. So that
really got the attention of the A and R staffs
and labels, and representatives of major labels started flying up
to Boston from New York to check out this band,
the Cars, whose demo tape got so much airplayer that
(11:49):
it was actually being reported on the national level. Max
And did that, and we will forever be indebted to
her for incredible support and getting this thing going. Okay,
thanks must go to our crew who were there with
us from the beginning and stay to the end. Some
were no longer with us, but the rest will be
(12:10):
there whenever we do something new, right up to the
present day, Keep going, keep going, Rick, Ben, and Greg.
To my fellow bandmates, Greg who did so much to
help define the band's distinctive sound, and who always helped
(12:31):
foster a sort of workshop atmosphere in the studio, and
who had such a great creative time with bouncing ideas
of each other from a lot of lines, hooks, arrangements
and all the rest of the process whereby a great
song is made into a great record. Well, everyone in
the band worked on all that stuff, and everyone's ideas
will always taken into consideration. David, who's rock solid drumming
(12:55):
always provided the foundation for all that followed, and for
his contributions to the band's image, naming the band, creating
our logo, and art directing all of our iconic album covers,
working tirelessly with the labels art department making sure that
they always look great. And we all know one thing
for sure, it all begins with a great song. Without that,
(13:17):
none of this would exist, the music business, radio, the
Hall of Fame, all of it. Without a great song,
there's nothing. And in Recolcastic, we had an incredible songwriter
whose songs, that's right, whose songs gave the band such
a wonderful platform and framework for the rest of us
(13:41):
to be creative and do the best work of our lives.
And they still sound great today. Thanks Rick. Finally, Benjamin,
who's sadly no longer with us, but whose incredible voice,
solid bass playing in good humor was such a huge
part of the band's success and not a bad looking
guy either. Cleveland has Ben's hometown, and they've always been
(14:04):
very proud of him here and I know that wherever
he is he's so proud on this special occasion, and
even more so that it would occur here of all places.
To my wife Jill, who spent many years in this
business of ours as a senior vpity and in records,
(14:24):
and my daughter, Sydney, your love, support and patience and
putting up with the life of a musician has meant
more to me than I could ever express in words.
I love you both to the moon and back. Finally,
that's right. Finally to my mom, a Juliard trained singer
who is incredible on a level with Garland or a
(14:46):
Rosemary Clooney, and gave it up, gave up a career
to raise a family, but who gave me the gift
of music and let me pass that gene onto my daughter,
who is an amazing singer. So you might say that
music is sort of the family business. My mom almost
my biggest fan and shared in the joy of our success,
and I always felt like I was doing this for
both of us. And I know that she's smiling down
(15:07):
at me from wherever she is, and it's so happy
and proud. Tonight we did it. Harm thank you all
very much. That that statue is too heavy a burden
(15:29):
for me to hold. So in nineteen sixty four, I
was eleven years old and I'd been taken piano lessons
for three or three, three or four years, and frankly
I was kind of getting bored with it and wanted
to give him up. But one day my dad came
home and said, well, I've got tickets to go see
(15:49):
the Beatles, but if you want to go, you've got
to sign up for another year of piano lessons. Ye
back then, I thought that was a pretty good deal,
and I still think that's a pretty good deal. So
(16:11):
I'd like to thank my dad for that pretty good deal.
And the other side of the story is that I
have to acknowledge that if it weren't for the Beatles,
I don't think it ever would have occurred to me
that I wanted to be in a band. I'd like
to also say thanks to Roy Thomas Baker, who produced
(16:34):
the first four Cars albums and helped define the sound
of the Cars. Roy came to see displayed during a
snowstorm in Massachusetts with about twenty or thirty people in
the audience in a high school gym, and he still
agreed to produce our first album on the spot. Thanks Royan,
(16:54):
and I'd also like to thank Mutt Wine for his
contribution to the Heartbeat City album. If you ever worked
for the Cars, I'd like to say thank you, and
there's a few that I'd just like to mention by name,
Andy Topeka, Tom Moore, Joe Astrola, Brian Squars, David hegel Meyer,
(17:16):
Julia Channon, Gene Amarosso, Steve Burke, Awitz, Richard Fernandez, Elliott Robertson,
Lookout Management, and I'd like to say thanks to Jeff
Kramer and everybody at Okay Management. And I'd especially like
to say thanks in particular for springing for the extra
tables for tonight. And I have my own personal Hall
(17:43):
of Fame that i would like to say thanks to
my friends Mark Vollman and Howard Kawen, whose history speaks
for themselves with the Turtles, the Mother of Invention and
on their own as Flow and Eddie. They were probably
the closest thing to having mentors that I ever had.
I'd like to give a nod of appreciation to Todd Rundgren,
(18:05):
who has been one of my musical heroes since before
I was ever in the cars. And I'd like to
say thanks to Martin mull who gave me my first
professional job in the music business, believe it or not.
(18:26):
And I'd like to say thanks to craft work and
Devo just for being so good. And i'd like to
I'd like to say thanks to my family for being
here tonight. My wife and Elaine and I got married
the same year the Cars started, so she's seen it all.
(18:49):
My kids, Ian and Annie are here tonight. I love you, guys,
and I'd like to say thanks to the Cars fans,
who are the real reason where he here. And I
know that some of you voted for us every single
(19:09):
day in the fan poll, not only this year but
the two previous years when we didn't get in, and
so thank you very much for that. And finally, I'd
like to give my acknowledgement to beIN or how fitting
that we are in Cleveland tonight. Without Bins innate talent
(19:38):
and his rock star good looks, it's unlikely that we
would be up here tonight. Thank you very much. I
really just rather play, but this is a great honor.
That guy's right. We've been together often on for forty
(20:03):
two years. You can look up our history on the line,
so we mess with that. But also I thank everybody
on the album covers, but I've never thanked them for
letting me play in the band, So thank you guys. Um,
I can't believe that I'm here and I will be
in a Hall of Fame with musicians that have been
so much to me. I can't even describe what that's like.
(20:25):
Everybody knows about the power and glory of rock and roll,
the magic, and it's it's here. Yeah. So so thank
you very much. Hey, thanks a lot. Yeah. I just
(20:58):
wanted to start off at the couple of little known
facts about the cars. When the band first started, ben
was supposed to be the lead singer and I was
supposed to be the good looking guy in the band.
But after a couple of gigs, the kind of got
demoted to the songwriter, so I went with that one. Uh.
(21:22):
But obviously it's hard not to notice that Benjamin Or
is not here. Uh. He would have been elated to
be here on this stage. Uh in his hometown. It
feels quite strange to be up here without him because
we missed him and love him dearly. UM. So anyway,
(21:44):
let's say that I want to thank that Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame for in abducting us. Uh. We
always like to be abducted. Um. And firstly, I'd like
to thank my wheelchaired grandmother for forcing me to sing
(22:05):
in the parlor in front of her friends when I
was five years old. Uh. She also had the nerve
to buy me a guitar the series and Roebuck when
I was about fourteen, and uh I heard this song
on the radio called That'll Be Today by Buddy Holly,
(22:26):
and uh, I thought, you know, I have to start
playing guitar. Uh. So I have to thank her for that.
I also, UH would like to thank my manager, Jeff Kramer,
my closest and dearest friend Lookout Management. And I like
to thank Cyndy Osborne there and Danny Bernard and Brian Higgins.
(22:52):
And I know there was a little mentioned about roy
Or Thomas Baker. I have to thank him. He was
a wonderful producer. He kept us laughing in the dark,
and uh it was a perfect storm. Eccentric. Roy took
us to London, England, and we recorded our first album
in twelve days. So that was great. Um so we um.
(23:17):
During our legendary days, we had Elliott Roberts as a manager.
Uh during our growing years. I have to also thank
Electric Records. Joe Smith back then was the guy who
signed us. That was probably a thousand years ago. Um,
I'd like to thank Peter Thoe and this guy named
(23:37):
Bert Padella took care of us in the eighties. Uh.
Richard Fernandez, our road manager, has has been with us
for almost I guess every tour we ever did always
got us where we wanted to go. David Hegelmeyer, who's
our right hand man, I wanted to thank, Gotta gotta
thank Brandon Flowers for all the wonderful adjectives. UM. I
(24:01):
want to thank Scott Shiner from Weezer, who's going to
be playing bass with us tonight. Um. Also Mariotteastani's the
guys watching their chips. Uh, you know a chips. It's
the kind of money. Uh. I want to thank Lawrence
Ferlingetti and Richard Broddigan and even Bob Dylan. We're just
(24:27):
writing the kind of words they can write. Um. But anyway,
I wouldn't be standing here at all if it wasn't
for Benjamin or Greg Hawks and David Robinson, and I
think they're really the sound of the cars. Um. Most importantly,
(24:51):
I'd like to thank my loving family because they know
me pretty well, but they still like me anyway. So
I lived in Cleveland for a while m hm. Uh.
(25:12):
It was actually the first place I ever played music
in front of people, and it was it a hint.
It was it a hooting nanny uh here and I
think it was about twenty blocks away, so um, I've
only moved as far up the street for all those years,
(25:34):
So good night. Thanks for joining us on this week's
(25:57):
episode of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Vault.
For more on your favorite inductees, to shop inductee merch
or to plan your trip to the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame, visit rock hall dot com. Plus view
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Special on
demand on HBO Max. Our executive producers are Noel Brown,
Shelby Morrison, and Esa Gurkey. Supervising producer is Taylor shakogn
(26:21):
Research and archival assistants from Isabelle Keeper and Shannon Herb.
Thanks again for joining us on this week's episode of
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Vault. Induction Ball
is a production of I Heart Radio in the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame. For more podcasts from my
(26:41):
Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
M H Welcome to Induction Vault, a production of I
Heart Radio and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
M post punk, power pop, classic rock, and new wave
(00:34):
all came together in the music of The Cars, a
sound you can't help but sing along to the night
of their induction, Brandon Flowers of The Killers set the
mood from the moment he walked on stage wearing a
black and white checkerboard jacket that screamed Eidies New Wave.
He professes his love for the Cars through a story
of his older brother introducing him to the band. When
(00:54):
recounting their formation, he mentions that Ricocatican ben Or actually
met in Ohio, and the Cleveland crowd goes wild. Easton Hawks,
Robinson anarcastic I'll take their turn at the microphone, telling
the cars increpredible journey and the thrill of being inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside some
of their personal heroes from the Beatles and Buddy Holly
(01:17):
to Bob Dylan and Elvis. After the band shares their sentiment,
they leave the podium to performance set Jam Packed with It,
which ultimately became Rico Kassick's final show with the band
before his passing in joining eighteen good any hall the
(01:41):
hell are you? I'm Branner Flowers. I'm honored to be
here with you all the night, New Way, post punk,
power pop Tonight. They're all rhyming together into the rock
and roll Hall of Fame on the back of what
has now established as one of the greatest debut albums
ever made. The Cars were named Best New Artist in
(02:04):
the nineteen seventy eight Rolling Stone Reader's poll, and forty
years later, they still sound like a new band of me.
A lot of kids written about rock and roll. People
try to describe it, but it was once said that
writing about music is like dancing about architecture. You just
gotta hear it to know. And when I first heard
The Cars, like so many others, I knew it was
(02:28):
when I was a thirteen year old misfit kid living
in a small town, smack dab in the middle of Utah.
We're talking hold on, we're talking no stoplights, small, We're
talking set all our differences at the water tower after school. Small.
Sometimes it even felt a little bit untouched by the
previous four or five decades, like everything was still in
(02:49):
black and white. Well, my big brother, Shane had the
twelve years on me and the intuition to come and
swoop me up. On the weekends I'd stayed at his
house up in Spanish Fork, another of driving Utah Metropolis
about an hour's drive up the I fifteen, and on
those critical and impressionable rescue missions, he'd played me his music.
(03:11):
There were a lot of great bands pastonomy by my brother,
and there have been many more since. But the Cars
were the first band that I truly fell in love with.
And you never forget your first. Rick Ocassock not okay, sick,
You're all saying it wrong. Rick Ocassack found Bassis, Benjamin
(03:33):
or his Silver and Gold right here in Ohio back
in nineteen Come on Fast friends. They stuck together through
various incarnations, always confident that they were on the right track,
whether it was Milkwood or Richard and the Rabbits. They
(03:54):
had a powerful belief in one another's talent. Okassock and
Horse Wrote eventually had them to Boston, where they found
drummer David Robinson, guitarist Elliott Easton, and in January nineteen
seventies seven added keyboard player Greg Hawks. Now they were
complete a slick machine with a three forty V eight
(04:17):
under the hood that ran on synergy, experimentation, and a
redefined cool. The cars had it all the looks, the hooks, beat,
romance lyrics, killer chorus is guitar solos that piste off
your parents, dazzling new to music videos, not to mention,
not to mention the best song in any movie scene
(04:38):
that featured a girl slowly getting out of a pool
and take her top off. That's right, that's right. I'll
take moving in stereo over the Star Wars team any
day of the week. They existed in the seventies and
eighties in the highly coveted sweet spot where credibility and
acclaim meets huge commer ircial success. Now, I was born
(05:01):
in eighty one, I seen Boogie Knights, and as I
understand it, while everybody else was sweating it up on
the dance floor in their polyester suits or finding out
in the clubs, these guys cruised in and made you
look like you were working too hard. First, you had Rick,
one of the world's most enigmatic and iconic frontman with
his cool detached vocals, an inscrutable Dillon and Velvets fan
(05:30):
with a very stylish jacket, pocket full of power choruses.
Benjamin a gift and multi instrumentalists, also packed some serious heat.
Armed with a haunting baritone and the classic rock chops.
His contributions were crucial part of what made the Cars unique.
Then we have Berkeley trained guitarist Elliott. Where is he at?
(05:53):
I see him as understated as he was, he was
a banded secret weapon with his distinctive and tasteful playing.
He played what was right for the song and still
managed to have his personality explode without stepping on anybody
else's toes. Next is Greg a multi instrumentalist with a
penchant for synthesizers and sequencing. It was his inventive spirit
(06:15):
that felt some refreshing and made the Car sounds so right.
Bands today he still try to emulate the balance he
found in marrying keyboards to guitars. And last, but certainly
certainly not least here with me David Robinson. Besides his
genius minimal drumming, David had other talents. It was David
(06:37):
who named the band, finding a spark of magic and
the mundane. The former modern Lover also created the license
plate logo and the iconic album art that spawned a
genre of album art direction all of its own. For decades,
bands have been referencing them and their cover art and
the hopes that maybe from the bins it would scream
try us, You'll love us just like you love the cars.
(07:00):
I might have even made a couple of those myself.
Over the years of cars of achieved, but every kid
who ever sweated out in a garage dreamed of, including
a young Kurt Cobain who chose My best Friends Girl
as one of his first tunes to learn. And what
they achieved was greatness, and they left a comic show
(07:20):
behind them, writing and recording songs that have transcended into classics.
Just what I needed, My best Friend's Girl, good times role.
You might think heartbeat City, since You're gone, Touch and Go,
You're I've got tonight Now, that's good rock and roll,
(07:43):
and good rock and roll is powerful. It can lift
us up, it can pull us through. It can even
transform a little black and white towns in the middle
of nowhere into electrifying color surging with possibility. So when
in his own masterpiece American Pie Don McLean ass, do
you believe in rock and roll? Can music save your
(08:08):
mortal soul the answer. Tonight and forever, we will be
an unequivocal and an emphatic yes. We thank the Cars. Elliott, Great, Dave,
Benjamin and Rick. We're standing on the shoulders of giants.
This band means so much to me in the millions
of others. I know that Benjamin is here sharing with
(08:30):
this moment with you guys. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm
over the moon and it's my great honor to name
duct into the Rock and Roll of Hall of Fame
the Cars. After the break, we'll hear from members of
the Cars on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
(08:52):
induction Bolt. Thank you Brandon for your lovely words. Hi everyone,
my name is Elliott Easton, and I'm very proud to
say that I played guitar with the Cars. Thank you
(09:13):
to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Board for
bestowing this honor upon us. It's a thrill to be
here and to join the ranks of all the incredible
artists who have already been inducted. I'm blessed to be
in a band that has in some way made a
contribution to the music, and this is quite an acknowledgement
of that tonight. Quick story just so you know how
deeply this thing goes. In six I was three years
(09:36):
old and I saw Elvis on TV. I immediately got
a comb and a glass of water and asked my
mom to comb my hair and a spit girl just
like Elvis is. Then I grabbed my Mickey Mouse guitar
and checked myself out in the mirror to try and
look like as much of a rock and roller as
a three year old good. So, from that moment to
lead to this one tonight has been a long, crazy,
(09:58):
twisted river, and I wouldn't and a moment of it.
How lucky I am to have realized and to live
my childhood dreams in a way there's still sort of
a dreamlike quality to all of this. Just a few
words to thank some of the people who have helped
so much along the way. First, I'd like to thank
Jeff Kramer and the rest of the crewde Okay, Management,
(10:20):
Danny Sydney, Cindy Brian. You've all done such a great
job with the band and have made it possible to
do more than I could have ever imagined. Thanks Jeff
for always stirring the ship in the right direction. Thanks
must go to Joe Smith and Electra Records for believing
in us and giving us a chance to make a
record in the first place and get the whole ball
rolling and much later. Thank you to rhinour Records for
(10:43):
doing such a great job with our issues and deluxe
editions of our albums. I still call them albums. Thank
you to our producers, Roy Thomas Baker and Mutt Lange
for doing such a great job of capturing what we
do in the best possible light, enhancing the music and
making it sound right on the radio. It sounds great
on stereos too. In the very early days of the band,
(11:05):
we had an angel in the form of a lady
named Max and Sartori, a top DJ a w b
c N in Boston from the city's biggest FM rock station,
and Max did an amazing thing. She began to play
our demo tape in heavy rotation alongside all the biggest
records of the day. It actually started being reported in
(11:26):
radio tip sheets like the Gavin Report and the rest
of them, so it would say something like the cars
just what I needed, and then the column where the
record label would normally be it said tape. So that
really got the attention of the A and R staffs
and labels, and representatives of major labels started flying up
to Boston from New York to check out this band,
the Cars, whose demo tape got so much airplayer that
(11:49):
it was actually being reported on the national level. Max
And did that, and we will forever be indebted to
her for incredible support and getting this thing going. Okay,
thanks must go to our crew who were there with
us from the beginning and stay to the end. Some
were no longer with us, but the rest will be
(12:10):
there whenever we do something new, right up to the
present day, Keep going, keep going, Rick, Ben, and Greg.
To my fellow bandmates, Greg who did so much to
help define the band's distinctive sound, and who always helped
(12:31):
foster a sort of workshop atmosphere in the studio, and
who had such a great creative time with bouncing ideas
of each other from a lot of lines, hooks, arrangements
and all the rest of the process whereby a great
song is made into a great record. Well, everyone in
the band worked on all that stuff, and everyone's ideas
will always taken into consideration. David, who's rock solid drumming
(12:55):
always provided the foundation for all that followed, and for
his contributions to the band's image, naming the band, creating
our logo, and art directing all of our iconic album covers,
working tirelessly with the labels art department making sure that
they always look great. And we all know one thing
for sure, it all begins with a great song. Without that,
(13:17):
none of this would exist, the music business, radio, the
Hall of Fame, all of it. Without a great song,
there's nothing. And in Recolcastic, we had an incredible songwriter
whose songs, that's right, whose songs gave the band such
a wonderful platform and framework for the rest of us
(13:41):
to be creative and do the best work of our lives.
And they still sound great today. Thanks Rick. Finally, Benjamin,
who's sadly no longer with us, but whose incredible voice,
solid bass playing in good humor was such a huge
part of the band's success and not a bad looking
guy either. Cleveland has Ben's hometown, and they've always been
(14:04):
very proud of him here and I know that wherever
he is he's so proud on this special occasion, and
even more so that it would occur here of all places.
To my wife Jill, who spent many years in this
business of ours as a senior vpity and in records,
(14:24):
and my daughter, Sydney, your love, support and patience and
putting up with the life of a musician has meant
more to me than I could ever express in words.
I love you both to the moon and back. Finally,
that's right. Finally to my mom, a Juliard trained singer
who is incredible on a level with Garland or a
(14:46):
Rosemary Clooney, and gave it up, gave up a career
to raise a family, but who gave me the gift
of music and let me pass that gene onto my daughter,
who is an amazing singer. So you might say that
music is sort of the family business. My mom almost
my biggest fan and shared in the joy of our success,
and I always felt like I was doing this for
both of us. And I know that she's smiling down
(15:07):
at me from wherever she is, and it's so happy
and proud. Tonight we did it. Harm thank you all
very much. That that statue is too heavy a burden
(15:29):
for me to hold. So in nineteen sixty four, I
was eleven years old and I'd been taken piano lessons
for three or three, three or four years, and frankly
I was kind of getting bored with it and wanted
to give him up. But one day my dad came
home and said, well, I've got tickets to go see
(15:49):
the Beatles, but if you want to go, you've got
to sign up for another year of piano lessons. Ye
back then, I thought that was a pretty good deal,
and I still think that's a pretty good deal. So
(16:11):
I'd like to thank my dad for that pretty good deal.
And the other side of the story is that I
have to acknowledge that if it weren't for the Beatles,
I don't think it ever would have occurred to me
that I wanted to be in a band. I'd like
to also say thanks to Roy Thomas Baker, who produced
(16:34):
the first four Cars albums and helped define the sound
of the Cars. Roy came to see displayed during a
snowstorm in Massachusetts with about twenty or thirty people in
the audience in a high school gym, and he still
agreed to produce our first album on the spot. Thanks Royan,
(16:54):
and I'd also like to thank Mutt Wine for his
contribution to the Heartbeat City album. If you ever worked
for the Cars, I'd like to say thank you, and
there's a few that I'd just like to mention by name,
Andy Topeka, Tom Moore, Joe Astrola, Brian Squars, David hegel Meyer,
(17:16):
Julia Channon, Gene Amarosso, Steve Burke, Awitz, Richard Fernandez, Elliott Robertson,
Lookout Management, and I'd like to say thanks to Jeff
Kramer and everybody at Okay Management. And I'd especially like
to say thanks in particular for springing for the extra
tables for tonight. And I have my own personal Hall
(17:43):
of Fame that i would like to say thanks to
my friends Mark Vollman and Howard Kawen, whose history speaks
for themselves with the Turtles, the Mother of Invention and
on their own as Flow and Eddie. They were probably
the closest thing to having mentors that I ever had.
I'd like to give a nod of appreciation to Todd Rundgren,
(18:05):
who has been one of my musical heroes since before
I was ever in the cars. And I'd like to
say thanks to Martin mull who gave me my first
professional job in the music business, believe it or not.
(18:26):
And I'd like to say thanks to craft work and
Devo just for being so good. And i'd like to
I'd like to say thanks to my family for being
here tonight. My wife and Elaine and I got married
the same year the Cars started, so she's seen it all.
(18:49):
My kids, Ian and Annie are here tonight. I love you, guys,
and I'd like to say thanks to the Cars fans,
who are the real reason where he here. And I
know that some of you voted for us every single
(19:09):
day in the fan poll, not only this year but
the two previous years when we didn't get in, and
so thank you very much for that. And finally, I'd
like to give my acknowledgement to beIN or how fitting
that we are in Cleveland tonight. Without Bins innate talent
(19:38):
and his rock star good looks, it's unlikely that we
would be up here tonight. Thank you very much. I
really just rather play, but this is a great honor.
That guy's right. We've been together often on for forty
(20:03):
two years. You can look up our history on the line,
so we mess with that. But also I thank everybody
on the album covers, but I've never thanked them for
letting me play in the band, So thank you guys. Um,
I can't believe that I'm here and I will be
in a Hall of Fame with musicians that have been
so much to me. I can't even describe what that's like.
(20:25):
Everybody knows about the power and glory of rock and roll,
the magic, and it's it's here. Yeah. So so thank
you very much. Hey, thanks a lot. Yeah. I just
(20:58):
wanted to start off at the couple of little known
facts about the cars. When the band first started, ben
was supposed to be the lead singer and I was
supposed to be the good looking guy in the band.
But after a couple of gigs, the kind of got
demoted to the songwriter, so I went with that one. Uh.
(21:22):
But obviously it's hard not to notice that Benjamin Or
is not here. Uh. He would have been elated to
be here on this stage. Uh in his hometown. It
feels quite strange to be up here without him because
we missed him and love him dearly. UM. So anyway,
(21:44):
let's say that I want to thank that Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame for in abducting us. Uh. We
always like to be abducted. Um. And firstly, I'd like
to thank my wheelchaired grandmother for forcing me to sing
(22:05):
in the parlor in front of her friends when I
was five years old. Uh. She also had the nerve
to buy me a guitar the series and Roebuck when
I was about fourteen, and uh I heard this song
on the radio called That'll Be Today by Buddy Holly,
(22:26):
and uh, I thought, you know, I have to start
playing guitar. Uh. So I have to thank her for that.
I also, UH would like to thank my manager, Jeff Kramer,
my closest and dearest friend Lookout Management. And I like
to thank Cyndy Osborne there and Danny Bernard and Brian Higgins.
(22:52):
And I know there was a little mentioned about roy
Or Thomas Baker. I have to thank him. He was
a wonderful producer. He kept us laughing in the dark,
and uh it was a perfect storm. Eccentric. Roy took
us to London, England, and we recorded our first album
in twelve days. So that was great. Um so we um.
(23:17):
During our legendary days, we had Elliott Roberts as a manager.
Uh during our growing years. I have to also thank
Electric Records. Joe Smith back then was the guy who
signed us. That was probably a thousand years ago. Um,
I'd like to thank Peter Thoe and this guy named
(23:37):
Bert Padella took care of us in the eighties. Uh.
Richard Fernandez, our road manager, has has been with us
for almost I guess every tour we ever did always
got us where we wanted to go. David Hegelmeyer, who's
our right hand man, I wanted to thank, Gotta gotta
thank Brandon Flowers for all the wonderful adjectives. UM. I
(24:01):
want to thank Scott Shiner from Weezer, who's going to
be playing bass with us tonight. Um. Also Mariotteastani's the
guys watching their chips. Uh, you know a chips. It's
the kind of money. Uh. I want to thank Lawrence
Ferlingetti and Richard Broddigan and even Bob Dylan. We're just
(24:27):
writing the kind of words they can write. Um. But anyway,
I wouldn't be standing here at all if it wasn't
for Benjamin or Greg Hawks and David Robinson, and I
think they're really the sound of the cars. Um. Most importantly,
(24:51):
I'd like to thank my loving family because they know
me pretty well, but they still like me anyway. So
I lived in Cleveland for a while m hm. Uh.
(25:12):
It was actually the first place I ever played music
in front of people, and it was it a hint.
It was it a hooting nanny uh here and I
think it was about twenty blocks away, so um, I've
only moved as far up the street for all those years,
(25:34):
So good night. Thanks for joining us on this week's
(25:57):
episode of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Vault.
For more on your favorite inductees, to shop inductee merch
or to plan your trip to the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame, visit rock hall dot com. Plus view
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Special on
demand on HBO Max. Our executive producers are Noel Brown,
Shelby Morrison, and Esa Gurkey. Supervising producer is Taylor shakogn
(26:21):
Research and archival assistants from Isabelle Keeper and Shannon Herb.
Thanks again for joining us on this week's episode of
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Vault. Induction Ball
is a production of I Heart Radio in the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame. For more podcasts from my
(26:41):
Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.