Doobie Brothers to join Rock Hall of Fame at last
Legendary San Jose band receives honor as it celebrates its 50th year
San Jose’s Doobie Brothers are going to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The classic rock act, which was founded in 1970 and has sold more than 40 million albums, is part of the Rock Hall’s 2020 class of inductees announced Wednesday.
“I can’t imagine a better start to our 50th year than by being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” Doobie Brothers cofounder Tom Johnston said. “Earning the recognition of our peers is a great honor that I don’t take lightly, but it’s our fans who kept us believing that we could get in. This is a stellar moment for The Doobie Brothers.”
The Doobies are the first San Jose act to
be voted into popular music’s most exclusive club.
Joining the Doobies this year are pioneering modern-rock/synth-pop act Depeche Mode, multiplatinum-selling vocalist Whitney Houston, hip-hop icon the Notorious B.I.G., industrial-rock champs Nine Inch Nails and glam-rockers T. Rex.
The acts will be enshrined during the 35th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on May 2 at Public Auditorium in Cleveland, Ohio.
The six inductees come from an overall batch of 16 nominees, which were announced in October. Those who didn’t make the cut, at least this time around, include Pat Benatar, Dave Matthews Band, Judas Priest, Kraftwerk, MC5, Motörhead, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, Todd Rundgren, Soundgarden and Thin Lizzy.
Four of the six inductees — the Doobies, T. Rex, Houston and Biggie — were first-time nominees.
Still, you can excuse Doobie fans for thinking it might never happen for their beloved band. An act is eligible 25 years after releasing its first recording, and the San Jose-born band has been eligible for Rock Hall inclusion since the mid-’90s.
The band’s credentials include eight gold/platinum-selling studio albums and such classic rock staples as “Listen to the Music,” “Jesus Is Just Alright,” “China Grove” and “Black Water.” For whatever reason, the Doobies were passed over, year after year, decade after decade.
Now the wait is finally over.
“I am so thrilled to hear that we’re being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame! It is such an honor to even be considered among the many deserving nominees, let alone selected,” band cofounder Pat Simmons said.
Fans took to social media to congratulate the band on the induction.
“Congrats to one of my favorite bands @TheDoobieBros on their election to #RockHall2020 well deserved guys. I’ve seen you so many times and you NEVER disappoint!” Doug Rice wrote on Twitter.
“My heart is so full of joy and happiness! Congrats to The Doobie Brothers, their crew, and their families. This honor is so well deserved. 50 years of performing the best rock music with the best harmonies ever!! So proud to have rocked down the Highway with you all. Love you!” Jeanine Perry tweeted.
It’s a big day for San Jose, as well, as the city’s most famous band finally gets its due. Other Rock Hall musicians have lived in or been associated with the city, including Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac fame. But the Doobies are San Jose at their core, in the same way that Jefferson Airplane belongs to San Francisco and the Doors to Los Angeles.
The band got its start in a house on 12th Street in downtown San Jose, just blocks from where members attended San Jose State University. The Doobies have been doing the city proud ever since, even after some of the members moved — like so many musicians do — up to Marin County.
“San Jose, for me, was just a really neat place to be,” Johnston said in an interview with this publication last year. “I loved living there. It was a cool time. You could have a room for $40 a month. I didn’t have a lot, but I didn’t care. I was having a ball. At the time, I was pursuing music, all day, every day. There were always people at the house playing. I would come home from school and find guys down in the basement blasting away.”
The induction comes just as the band celebrates its 50th anniversary with a major tour, which includes shows on Sept. 10 at Toyota Amphitheatre at Wheatland and Sept. 12 at Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View. And, for the first time in nearly 25 years, the lineup for the tour will include Johnston, John McFee, Pat Simmons and Michael McDonald.
During the interview, Johnston said he never had an inkling during the band’s formative years that the group would still be going, let alone basking in the limelight of Rock Hall immortality a half-century later. And the Doobies show no sign of slowing down anytime soon.
“We still love playing,” Johnston said. “We still love interacting with the crowds.”
The Hall of Fame announcement includes other awards as well, including the Ahmet Ertgun Awards, which honor songwriters, producers, disc jockeys, record executives, journalists and other industry professionals who have had a influence on music. This year’s recipients are music critic/manager/producer Jon Landau — best known for his work with Bruce Springsteen — and Irving Azoff, the former Live Nation/Ticketmaster/Madison Square Garden honcho who now runs Full Stop Management.