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Madonna leads Hall of Fame class
11/03/2008 14:02 - (SA)
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| Madonna accepts her award after being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York. (Jason DeCrow, AP)
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New York - Madonna, pop music's quick-change artist, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and paid tribute to people who encouraged her and even critics who panned her for helping drive her career.
Heartland hitmaker John Mellencamp, with his son Speck playing guitar and his parents watching from a balcony above the Waldorf Astoria Hotel ballroom, joined the rock-kicking on Monday night with a rumbling version of Authority Song.
"I wrote this song, and I still feel the same way today as I did when I wrote it 25 years ago," Mellencamp said.
Philly soul producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, literate Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen, British rockers the Dave Clark Five, and surf instrumentalists the Ventures were among the other inductees.
Madonna recalled a teacher who encouraged her to follow her dreams when she was only 14.
"Thirty-five years later, people are still encouraging me to believe in my dreams," she said at the induction ceremony. "What more could I ask for?"
Even the people who "said I was talentless, that I was chubby, that I couldn't sing, that I was a one-hit wonder, they helped me, too," she said.
"They inspired me because they made me question myself repeatedly and pushed me to be better."
Singer Justin Timberlake, who helped produce Madonna's upcoming album, inducted her with an innuendo-laden speech.
"The world is full of Madonna wannabes. I might have even dated a couple," said Britney Spears' ex-boyfriend. "But there is truly only one Madonna."
'Top shelf'
Timberlake told of how he felt ill one day while working on Madonna's new album and she asked whether he wanted a B-12 vitamin shot.
He said sure, expecting a doctor to show up, but Madonna pulled out a syringe and said, "drop 'em."
After he pulled his pants back up, "she looked at me and said, 'That's top shelf,' and that was one of the greatest days of my life," he said.
"Everything he said is basically true," Madonna confirmed, "but I didn't say 'drop 'em,' I said, 'pull your pants down."
Madonna did not perform but asked punk rockers Iggy Pop and the Stooges to sing Burning Up and Ray of Light.
At the end, a shirtless Pop said, "you make me feel shiny and new, like a virgin touched for the very first time," and tossed his microphone to the floor.
- AP
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