In a surprising move, legendary bassist and session musician Carol Kaye, aged 90, has declined to participate in her 2025 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
She claims the honour fails to reflect the collective spirit and behind-the-scenes artistry of the studio musicians who helped shape the sound of modern music.
Kaye, whose staggering career includes an estimated 10,000 recording sessions with artists like The Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, and Frank Zappa, was selected this year in the Musical Excellence category.
But in a candid Facebook post earlier this week, she announced she won’t be attending the ceremony or accepting the accolade.
‘NO I won’t be there,’ Kaye wrote. ‘I am declining the RRHOF awards show … turning it down because it wasn’t something that reflects the work that studio musicians do and did in the golden era of the 1960s recording hits.’
Kaye’s decision is distinctly political, a pointed critique of an industry that has long celebrated frontmen and solo acts while often ignoring the unsung people behind the curtain.
In her post, Kaye emphasised that the era’s music was made by a massive, collaborative effort, hundreds of skilled musicians working as a tight unit in Hollywood’s studio scene.
‘You are always part of a TEAM, not a solo artist at all,’ she wrote. There were always 350–400 studio musicians (AFM Local 47 Hollywood) working in the busy 1960s… Since 1930s, I was never a ‘wrecker’ at all — that’s a terrible insulting name.’
The ‘wrecker’ reference touches on another sore point for Kaye.
She has long bristled at the posthumous branding of her peers as The Wrecking Crew, which was a label popularized by drummer Hal Blaine and later immortalized in a 2008 documentary directed by Denny Tedesco, which Kaye has also distanced herself from.
Kaye’s path to icon status was unconventional. A self-described jazz guitarist in the 1950s, she was roped into session work by Bumps Blackwell in 1957 and fell into bass playing by accident in 1963 when a scheduled player didn’t show up.
‘I never played bass in my life’ she wrote. ‘But being an experienced recording guitarist, it was plain to see that three bass players hired to play “dum-de-dum” on record dates wasn’t getting it. It was easy for me to invent good bass lines.’
That spontaneous switch marked the beginning of one of the most prolific and creative bass careers in popular music.
Her Facebook post closed with a graceful but firm rejection of what she sees as a flawed system of recognition.
‘I refuse to be part of a process that is something else rather than what I believe in, for others’ benefit and not reflecting on the truth,’ she wrote.
‘We all enjoyed working with EACH OTHER. Thank you for understanding.’
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