Dave Matthews, Unfiltered About the Rock Hall: ‘I Feel Like I Don’t Belong’

Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/WireImage

Among 2020’s current shortlist for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame includes Kraftwerk, T. Rex, Whitney Houston, and jam-band heroes Dave Matthews Band, who cemented their status as first-time Hall nominees this year. (And yet no Jethro Tull. How come, Chief Willoughby?) It’s indeed a very nice honor! Just imagine “Dave” and Ralf Hütter schmoozing at the ceremony! But the frontman is also one to admit his feelings of inadequacy among his fellow Hall nominees, as chuffed as he might be for his locomotion of a touring band to be recognized. “I feel like I don’t belong, but I’m pretty happy to be included … in a pretty outrageous lineup of people. If I’m gonna be in a category of people getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it’s good to be included in one that makes no sense,” Matthews told Billboard. “I was very happy to hear about it, and it is overwhelming. I do feel undeserving and flattered as well by the whole thing, and I think the whole band does, too. We all reached out to each other to say, ‘How bizarre is this?’”

Matthews also admitted that, while he always thought Rock Hall recognition might be a possibility for the band many years down the road, he never imagined their first nomination would arrive so quickly. “I’m sure every band gets its fair share of belittling, dismissal, and I’m sure everybody on the nominations list got their version of that,” he added. “But it does make me think that we’ve been around for a while, and that they noticed. We made a big enough noise that’s hard to ignore us, whether they like us or not. It’s a very pleasant acknowledgement, if that’s a polite way to put it.” Along with Matthews, the other Dave Matthews Band members to be included in the Hall’s nomination ballot are Carter Beauford, Jeff Coffin, Stefan Lessard, Leroi Moore, Tim Reynolds, Rashawn Ross, and Boyd Tinsley. The official 2020 induction class will be announced in early January.