Bob Wills and His (Missing) Texas Playboys

(This post has been updated. The Texas Playboys have been found. See below.)

In 1999, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in the “Early Influence” category. For years, the Rock Hall clearly listed all of the Playboys individually on their website as inductees, as this screenshot from 2010 shows:

Rock Hall Screenshot Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys

When the new Hall of Fame exhibit at the Museum was unveiled last year, the Texas Playboys were omitted from the signature plaque and removed from the website:

IMG_5041

Bob Wills no Playboys

Why on earth* would the Rock Hall remove Tommy Duncan, Leon McAuliffe, Johnny Gimble, Joe Holley, Tiny More, Herb Remington, Eldon Shamblin, and Al Stricken? We all know the Rock Hall has a problem inducting women, but throwing out dead male inductees doesn’t seem like a good solution. If you’re going to erase history, at least provide an explanation for what you’re doing.

* - Please don’t say it’s because they didn’t fit on the plaque.

Update (May 4, 2019): The Rock Hall Museum’s President and CEO, Greg Harris, tweeted today to say that the Texas Playboys have been restored to the website and will be added to the signature wall soon.


Update (January 22, 2020):



blog comments powered by Disqus