The 2017 Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame inductees are: Gin Blossoms, Meat Puppets, Nils Lofgren and Celebrity Theatre. The Thursday, August 17th induction ceremony at Celebrity Theatre will mark the first time these three Arizona attractions have performed on the same stage, on the same night! Showtime is 7:30 p.m.; tickets start as low as $15 with proceeds going to the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame.
The ceremony will recognize inductees for their contributions to the music and entertainment culture of the state of Arizona. There will be presentations by special guest speakers including FOX 10 TV’S John Hook and Kari Lake.
Gin Blossoms are a hometown band from Tempe, Arizona that made it big and sold over 10 million albums. Songs from the alt-rockers’ multi-platinum smash album New Miserable Experience, which turns 25 this year, are still in radio rotation today. “Hey Jealousy,” “Mrs. Rita,” “Allison Road” and other gems from the collection showcased their blend of contemporary power pop with elements of the post-grunge era.
Meat Puppets – whose core since 1980 has consisted of Phoenix-raised brothers Curt and Cris Kirkwood – inspired countless bands with their reputation for mixing punk, country and psychedelia into a jammy stew. During their more than 30-year career they went from being out of place underground punks to discovery by mainstream grunge audiences through Nirvana’s famous Unplugged to maintaining Top 40 popularity themselves through 1994’s “Backwater” from their gold record Too High To Die.
Scottsdale’s Nils Lofgren has enjoyed a long and critically lauded career as one of the most illustrious sidemen in rock ‘n’ roll history. The musician-songwriter has played alongside Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, and Ringo Starr, and contributed guitar work to albums and live performances by Stephen Stills, Willie Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Seger and more. When he wasn’t contributing to artists with huge name recognition, Lofgren managed to build an impressive discography of his own music.
