# Rick Wakemans Rock and Roll Acceptance Speech **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 16, 2020, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-wakemans-rock-and-roll-acceptance-speech/915458 "2020-07-16T02:09:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-wakemans-rock-and-roll-acceptance-speech/915458/1 "2020-07-16T02:09:24Z")
…is absolutely hilarious (and NSFW) and puts what he thinks of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in its proper perspective. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/i34kuOqEXRc/maxresdefault.jpg "Rick Wakeman's Acceptance Speech at the 2017 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (Compleet)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i34kuOqEXRc) ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-wakemans-rock-and-roll-acceptance-speech/915458/2 "2020-07-16T02:18:11Z")
More Wakeman funny… [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/FMqoRZsxOVc/maxresdefault.jpg "Rick Wakeman Takes Requests At Planet Rock") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMqoRZsxOVc) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-wakemans-rock-and-roll-acceptance-speech/915458/3 "2020-07-16T02:33:20Z")
I had forgotten just how hilarious that RRHOF speech was. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-wakemans-rock-and-roll-acceptance-speech/915458/4 "2020-07-16T03:44:52Z")
I recall seeing on Youtube an unedited version of the speech, and then later seeing the official redaction where most of the off-color stuff had been carefully edited out by the use of carefully timed cuts to different cameras. I thought he was often funny, but for most of stuff that was cut from the official version I tend to agree with the editors that it wasn’t appropriate for the ceremony. It’s not supposed to be a comedy club. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-wakemans-rock-and-roll-acceptance-speech/915458/5 "2020-07-16T06:22:46Z")
IMO he was upset that it had taken them so long to recognize not only Yes but Prog Rock and he didnt care about the RRHOF. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-wakemans-rock-and-roll-acceptance-speech/915458/6 "2020-07-16T08:45:56Z")
There is an interview where he explains his speech. It boils down to the fact that he thinks acceptance speeches are often boring and he wanted to liven things up a bit. He had no intention of disrespecting the ceremony. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-wakemans-rock-and-roll-acceptance-speech/915458/7 "2020-07-16T08:55:05Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/6jsjVtQekwA/maxresdefault.jpg "Rick Wakeman Talks YES, David Bowie, The Beatles And His 'Grumpy Old Rock Star' Tour") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jsjVtQekwA) A long interview, but the RRHOF speech explanation is the very first topic. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-wakemans-rock-and-roll-acceptance-speech/915458/8 "2020-07-16T11:09:13Z")
Not so much to disagree but to expand on this, in this long discussion he explained that he didnt care at all about Hall of Fames. Of course this is years before Yes was inducted. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/vAJeP7KPkrU/maxresdefault.jpg "Rick Wakeman - Interview (2007)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAJeP7KPkrU) “I never meant to be irreverant but I was bored shitless.” 😏 [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/vAJeP7KPkrU/maxresdefault.jpg "Rick Wakeman - Interview (2007)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAJeP7KPkrU) ---
**Author:** ![wreidhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e99b99/32.png) [@wreidhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wreidhead)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-wakemans-rock-and-roll-acceptance-speech/915458/9 "2020-07-16T11:57:49Z")
actually, this is not as funny if you knew the whole story. At the time of the induction, there were two competing bands using the Yes name. There was ‘YesO’, the original Yes with legal rights to the name, comprising Steve Howe, Alan White, Geoff Downes, Billy Sherwood, and Jon Davison, and there was ‘Yes featuring Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, and Trevor Rabin.’ The two camps were on pretty poor terms and it took a lot of arm twisting to get them to take the RRHoF stage together. Each of the current band members was invited to make short speeches of a couple of minutes. Wakeman’s speech was deliberately designed to run over time and to steal the limelight from the YesO guys. But the heartbreaking thing is that the real victim of this shitty ploy was Scotty Squire, the widow of the late Chris Squire, who was unable to speak at all given Rick’s grandstanding. I have been a Yes fan for 35 years and love everything about them. But Wakeman can be a real asshat… ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-wakemans-rock-and-roll-acceptance-speech/915458/10 "2020-07-16T19:19:35Z")
More of Rick Wakeman being hilarious [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/6FAgVHtsKCs/hqdefault.jpg "Rick Wakeman - Drink Driving") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FAgVHtsKCs) j ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-wakemans-rock-and-roll-acceptance-speech/915458/11 "2020-07-16T19:36:26Z")
> [@wreidhead](#): > > But Wakeman can be a real asshat… Yup. I say this as someone for whom Yes was his first album and first concert, and who only stopped buying their albums after they begin fragmenting: this just struck me as a silly standup act wedged into a public honoring ceremony. I get that he doesn’t take it seriously, but in that sense it’s all about him, and he just craps on it for everyone else. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-wakemans-rock-and-roll-acceptance-speech/915458/12 "2020-07-17T00:25:58Z")
> [@wreidhead](#): > > At the time of the induction, there were two competing bands using the Yes name. There was ‘YesO’, the original Yes with legal rights to the name, comprising Steve Howe, Alan White, Geoff Downes, Billy Sherwood, and Jon Davison, and there was ‘Yes featuring Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, and Trevor Rabin.’ > … > Each of the current band members was invited to make short speeches of a couple of minutes. I sure hope that Jon Davison was not anywhere near this award ceremony, even if he was a “current member”. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rick-wakemans-rock-and-roll-acceptance-speech/915458/13 "2020-07-20T19:30:10Z")
Ridiculous. If it’s about anything, rock’n’roll is about tearing down phony facades and self-congratulatory bs. His speech was the best thing to ever happen at a Hall of Fame Ceremony. Hell , Wakeman should MC every year.