Peter Wolf on J. Geils Band’s Latest Rock Hall Nomination
With a fifth Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination, J. Geils Band frontman Peter Wolf is understandably cautious about the group’s chances of actually being inducted into the shrine next April.
Wolf tells us that:
“Well, we’ve been nominated before…and one always hopes it turns into fruition, but it’s one of those things, as to quote a Chuck Berry song, you never can tell…Being that the J. Geils Band is so involved in roots and we have a long history of trying to share, not unlike the Rolling Stones, our influences, our blues influence, R&B influence and rock influences, it’s nice to be sort of in the nomination post along with the historical meaning of a part of rock ‘n’ roll which the Hall of Fame is about.”
The Geils band’s most recent nomination came last year, and Wolf has been a frequent guest and inductor at the annual ceremony. Since the last nomination guitarist and namesake John “J.” Geils passed away, on February 20, at the age of 71. The rest of the lineup — Wolf, keyboardist Seth Justman, bassist Danny Klein and harmonica player Magic Dick Salwitz and drummer Stephen Jo Bladd, who retired from the group on friendly terms — are still alive. The band broke up in 1985 but regrouped during 1999, 2005-2006 and regularly since 2009, although it has not played any shows this year.
Fan voting for the Rock Hall has opened at RockHall.com and will run through December 5. Inductees for the Rock Hall class of 2018 will be announced in December, with the ceremony taking place April 14 at the Public Auditorium in Cleveland and filmed by HBO for subsequent broadcast.
Gary Graff is an award-winning music journalist who not only covers music but has written books on Bob Seger, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.
