Chubby Checker, the rock n’ roller best known for popularising the Twist, will not, apparently, be attending his induction into the Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame. But it’s not for the reasons you might expect.
Usually, artists flounce out on the Hall of Fame because they think they’re too cool (Liam Gallagher, Mark Knopfler) or because they’re dead (George Harrison, Donna Summer). In Checker’s case, it seems to be because he wants to prove he’s actually still alive.
The 83-year-old was interviewed recently and the footage has been posted on Future Rock Legends. It seems Chubby had deliberated booked a gig for the same night as the induction ceremony this November.
“I told my manager, I said, ‘Make sure when we go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the induction, that I’m doing what I love doing the most: Being in front of an audience. A live audience, not a television audience,” he said.
“This is the way I look at it,” he continued. “Being an older person... Chubby goes to the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame. They say ‘he’s an old guy’. He’s probably retired, not doing anything. Maybe he’s on crutches to go to Hall of Fame, to get his little award and go back home," he said sarcastically.
“I said ‘no’. Let’s be doing a show, to show that I’m alive and well, and the audience is wonderful and my dream is still being fulfilled.”
Here’s more of Chubby Checker’s explanation for skipping the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony
— @futurerocklegends.com (@futurerocklegends.com.bsky.social) 2025-08-18T14:30:03.872Z
You suspect that swimming amidst all this is some resentment at having been passed over by the Hall Of Fame for so long. Checker has been eligible for induction ever since the whole project started in the mid 80s and has seen virtually every other old school rock icon chosen before him. Indeed he told Associated Press in 2014: “I don’t want to get in there when I’m 85 years old. I’ll tell them to drop dead, so you better do it quick while I’m still smiling.”
At least Chubby won’t be alone in snubbing the ceremony. Bass playing living legend Carol Kaye has also said no, writing in a Facebook post earlier this year that it's because the Hall Of Fame induction doesn’t “reflect the work that studio musicians do and did in the golden era of 1960s recording hits. You were always part of a team, not a solo artist at all.”
Other inductees this year include Bad Company, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, Soundgarden and the White Stripes.
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