Tupac Shakur, Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) and Sly Stone are among the artists who will receive lifetime honors from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.
Six artists have been selected to enter the Rock Hall, including Joan Baez and grunge act Pearl Jam.
Tupac Shakur will be only the fifth hip-hop artist recognized, after the likes of Run DMC and Public Enemy.
The Grammys will honor Velvet Underground and Sly Stone with their special merit awards.
In a statement, the Recording Academy said the Velvet Underground, whose career was masterminded by Andy Warhol, were “ahead of their time, both visually and sonically”.
“Despite a relatively brief lifespan and limited commercial success, the Velvet Underground are now recognized as one of the most influential rock bands of all time,” the statement added.
Image source Flickr
Sly Stone, who was the lead singer in Sly and the Family Stone, was praised by the Academy for playing “a critical role in the development of soul, funk, rock, and psychedelia”.
Other recipients include jazz legend Nina Simone, gospel singer Shirley Caesar, jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal, country star Jimmie Rodgers and guitarist Charley Pride.
Nina Simone, who died in 2003, became famous in the 1950s and is known for classic songs including Feeling Good and I Put a Spell on You.
The musicians will be celebrated in February as part of the festivities in the run up to the Grammy Awards.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which is arguably the more prestigious honor, is voted for by 900 historians, members of the music industry and artists, including every living Rock Hall inductee.
Artists become eligible 25 years after the release of their first album or single. 2017 is the first year Pearl Jam and Tupac Shakur were eligible. They are also the first artists to join the institution who started their careers in the 1990s.
The induction ceremony will take place on Friday, April 7, 2017, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. HBO will broadcast the highlights, which often include an all-star jam featuring past and present winners.
A limited number of pre-sale tickets will be available for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame members in advance of the public sale date. To be eligible for the member pre-sale, you must be an active Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member by December 31, 2016. Additional public ticket details and presale offers will be announced in the future. The special exhibition on the 2017 Inductees will open at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland on March 30.
Sly Stone, the veteran funk singer is currently homeless, and living in a van in Los Angeles’ rough-and-tumble Crenshaw district, according to a report co-written by Stone documentarian William Alkema for the New York Post.
Sly Stone, 68, parks the van in a residential street in the notoriously rough Los Angeles neighborhood of Crenshaw, where a retired couple provides him with a warm meal each day and use of a shower.
Sly Stone, born Sylvester Stewart, is the former Sly & the Family Stone frontman, known for such hits in the late ’60s and early ’70s as “Dance to the Music,” “Everyday People” and “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)”.
Sly Stone, the funk legend is currently homeless and living in a van.
During the height of his career, Sly Stone, the eccentric funk legend owned a sprawling Los Angeles mansion in Beverly Hills, and just four years ago he moved into a Napa Valley “compound,” complete with a vineyard.
But now Sly Stone is suffering with financial problems and he is living out of his white van.
Sly Stone told the New York Post:
“I like my small camper. I just do not want to return to a fixed home. I cannot stand being in one place. I must keep moving.”
In recent years, a drug habit (Sly Stone has been arrested multiple times for cocaine possession) and fiscal difficulties (last year he sued his former manager, Jerry Goldstein, for $50 million, claiming that Goldstein had defrauded him) led Sly Stone into his current situation. Not that he appears to mind.
Sly Stone is hoping that today’s hit-makers will reach out and help him stage a comeback
Despite it all, Sly Stone is still recording music, on a laptop computer in his van – and with reportedly hundreds of songs currently in the can, the musician is hoping that today’s hit-makers will reach out and help him stage a comeback.
“I see all the guys playing those old songs,” Sly Stone says.
“Let these guys know, like Lady Gaga, let me come in, just let me come in and pay me if you like it.”
It might be a while before Sly Stone gets another crack at the stage. His live performances have been exceedingly rare over the past two decades, and when he has taken the stage, the results have tended toward the shambolic – such as his brief, bizarre appearance at last year’s Coachella Music and Arts Festival.
