Following Julia Roberts’ induction speech, Dave Matthews Band was welcomed into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2024, with the frontman delivering a speech on behalf of his band mates.
During his poignant speech, Matthews went down memory lane all the way back to the band’s beginnings in Charlottesville, Virginia, thanked members both current and departed, and especially praised the fans for their efforts in getting DMB inducted into the Rock Hall.
Read Matthews’ Rock Hall speech below:
First of all, the Class of 2024, I’ve said it before, but it does feel like we’re swimming in very deep water here, and just deeply grateful for being inducted with this incredible group of people.
And a funny story, I was just last weekend with a person that haven’t seen in 30 years, and they said ‘I was going through some old things of mine, and in this drawer, and I found the old Tribe Called Quest album you gave me.’ And I was like, ‘That’s funny, because I am being inducted with my band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with A Tribe Called Quest.’ And I just absolutely love them.
And then I told Peter [Frampton] already, I just think the absolute world of you, I think you’re just incredible, and you’re such a big part of my life. Peter Frampton, what a hero. I was in the gym and Ozzy Osbourne was running on the treadmill next to me. I do have a soft spot for Ozzy Osbourne, and he’s just – this is the truth – one of the nicest people in the world. He really is. I took my son to see him when my son was little and I went to see Black Sabbath with my boy, and there was a lot of blood, but it was lovely.
But I just have to say now that it is such an honor to share the stage with these guys night after night, and things have changed. But I’m going to start, I’m gonna get on it now. Carter Beauford, Stefan Lessard, Leroi Moore, we wish you were here, we miss you every day. Tim Reynolds, I love you. Rashawn Ross, Buddy Strong, Jeff Coffin. Okay, I’m going to go fast. Not here, obviously, but Boyd Tinsley, wherever you are, we hope you’re finding the happiness you seek. Butch Taylor, he played keys with us for years. Thank you so much. Peter Greisar, the first keyboardist in the band. Thanks for sticking with us as long as you did. You had bigger plans.
I’m gonna go fast now: A thousand thanks to our crew. I know we’re doing the playing where this is the going-out music. Thanks. There is so many people, too many people to thank. Somebody said, and then somebody else said, that I was a bartender at Millers, but we all met at Millers, at least the original guys, and I, for years, was a fan of these musicians, before I ever told them that I played the guitar. And that bar was a great place for musicians. And the guy who owned that bar is here. Steve Thorpe, thank you for letting us put a band together. And another friend of ours from that bar encouraged me to write songs. And John D’earth, great trumpet player, and he’s here. We love you, John, thank you for encouraging me to take a tape of my music to Carter and Roy, who are my heroes. And then, and they said, ‘Sure, we’ll play with you. Whatever we got time. Got nothing to do in the daytime.’
So this practice, we drank a lot of liquor at Steve’s, at the bar, a lot of free liquor, because I was a bartender, so I was just, I have the power. And then, Carter and me and Roy all lived in our mom’s houses because we were grown men and then at the time, but Stefan was in high school so he had his own place. He was ahead of his time. I’m trying to think of things to say. Carter and Roy said to me one day ‘You should get Rashawn to be in the band.’ I said, ‘You should get Rashawn to be in the band.’ And then when Roy was injured, and we thought he needed someone to cover for him for a while, Jeff Coffin stepped up, our old friend from the Flecktones. And then when Roy passed, Jeff stayed on with us, and we love you for that.
Also, when Buddy joined the band, it brought new life to us, and we’re so grateful he’s here with us too. I had so much written down, and the poor teleprompter driver is just like, ‘what is happening’ because it’s all been said already. I want to thank Chip Hooper, who’s not with us anymore, for telling us where to go. And I want to thank my sort of long-lost friend Ross Hoffman for convincing me to finish songs, I don’t think I could have without him. I don’t know who else to thank. My family, our families. We love them all so much.
And then I wanted to get the most important thing that I think matters to everything about this band, and probably every band here, is our fans. It’s bananas. And I blame it on their persistence, not on the quality of anything, but we won the fan vote when we were first nominated but we didn’t get in. And then I mean only because I can see our fans [complaining], so we won this time. But I blame my fans. Our fans, sorry. We got in, which is amazing. Thank you to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But I thought, it would have been pretty cool if we didn’t get in again, because that’ll be like, ‘Look at that.’ And then hopefully we can pull it off one more time then. But we’re really happy about this. Thank you to all the artists that we got to share this. I mean heroes of all of ours, just unbelievable. And thank everybody. I just screwed up the whole speech. Everything, families, friends, everybody. Thank you, Julia Roberts.
So I know a lot of you guys are going to be leaving now, so we’ll play some going away music.