People: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame names new class
The punk trio Green Day, poet of the New York underground Lou Reed and “Lean on Me” singer Bill Withers will lead a new class of inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year.
The hall announced Tuesday that it also will welcome Joan Jett & the Blackhearts and make Ringo Starr the fourth ex-Beatle enshrined as an individual. Besides Reed, the class includes other posthumous inductees Paul Butterfield and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
The 30th annual induction ceremony will be held at Cleveland’s Public Hall April 18. Green Day made it in the group’s first year of eligibility. The Bay Area band led by Billie Joe Armstrong made the 1990s slackers anthem “Dookie” and hit a peak with the politically themed concept disc “American Idiot” a decade later.
Reed, who died in October 2013 following complications from a liver transplant, is already in the hall as a member of the Velvet Underground.
Withers brought a jazz and funk touch to 1970s era singer-songwriter material like “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Use Me” and “Just the Two of Us.”
Jett emerged from the all-female punk-era pioneers the Runaways to lead a band of men with punchy hits, none bigger than the declaration “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll.”
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band married blues and rock during the 1960s, led by its leader’s harmonica and the lead guitar of Mike Bloomfield.
Blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan was a 1980s prodigy for his work with band Double Trouble on songs like “Pride and Joy” and “Texas Flood.” Like hero Jimi Hendrix his life was cut short, dying in a 1990 plane crash.
Beatles drummer Ringo Starr is being given a special award for musical excellence. The “5” Royales will be inducted in the early influence category. The former gospel group recorded the original version of “Dedicated to the One I Love.”
Quaids sue to get passports back
Actor Randy Quaid and his wife, Evgenia, are suing John Kerry and the State Department to recover passports that the government revoked three years ago.
The State Department said it takes U.S. passports for reasons including issuance of a felony arrest warrant, fraud, failure to pay child support or a criminal court order barring departure from the country.
Randy Quaid said the revocation involved an issue over “an insurance policy that we did not take out,” but declined to discuss it further.
“We can’t go anywhere,” Quaid said.
“Randy can’t take a film job,” said Evgenia Quaid. “He had to turn down the Cannes Film Festival last year. We can’t proceed with our life.”
The Quaids have had a string of legal problems, including accusations of vandalism of a home they once owned and a California felony warrant issued over an unpaid hotel tab.
The birthday bunch
Pope Francis is 78. Rock singer-musician Art Neville is 77. Actor Ernie Hudson is 69. Comedian-actor Eugene Levy is 68. Actor Bill Pullman is 61. Actor Barry Livingston is 61.