St. Vincent will perform at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony Friday.
Lake Highlands High School graduate Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, will be inducting someone into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Friday night, but details remain strictly hush-hush. Fans of the guitar goddess have been speculating who she’ll honor since the list of inductees was released in May.
Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, George Michael, Willie Nelson, Rage Against the Machine and The Spinners will be inducted in the performer category, while DJ Kool Herc and Link Wray will receive the Musical Influence Award for inspiring youth culture. Chaka Khan, Al Kooper and Bernie Taupin will receive the Musical Excellence Award, and Soul Train creator Don Cornelius will be named the Ahmet Ertegun Awardee for non-performing industry professionals.
St. Vincent was coy on social media last month, posting “I can’t tell you who i’m inducting but…,” and loyal fans believe the honoree is a woman, since she’s notorious for uplifting and promoting other female artists in the world of music and design. But, perhaps we can do even better than that.
In 2022, Far Out Magazine named St. Vincent one of six artists inspired by English singer-songwriter Kate Bush.
“Drawing a line between Bush and the mercurial talent of Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, is a drag of the pen that happens of its own propulsion. The New Yorker has often spoken of her love for the ethereal pop princess,” wrote Far Out’s Joe Taysom.
Fifteen years earlier, St. Vincent was already effusive in her praise for Bush when speaking to writers at Pitchfork.
“This may sound really silly — but I just discovered Kate Bush, probably six months ago, and I think she’s so great. I know I’m very late to the party here [laughs], I know this is old news, but I got a Kate Bush record, and I forget — I think ‘The Dreaming’ is on it, though I’m spacing on the name of the record. It has Kate Bush in this totally miraculous ascot, too, on the back [laughs]. She just went for it. It’s just so great. She totally went for it.”
Of course, there’s no way to know for sure until we watch the LH native’s performance on that worldwide stage. Induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is music’s highest honor, and the ceremony will be broadcast live on Disney+ at 7 p.m. Friday. A condensed version of the show will air on ABC on New Year’s Day.
