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Newly nominated Melissa Etheridge<\/a> vehemently disagrees with Gene Simmons<\/a>‘ argument that hip hop don’t belong in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame<\/a>. She says instead that rock and roll is more about “feeling.”<\/p>\n “It’s not my music,” the Kiss<\/a> star said during a February podcast interview<\/a>. “I don’t come from the ghetto. It doesn’t speak my language, and I said in print many times hip-hop does not belong in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame \u2013 nor does opera symphony orchestras.”<\/p>\n If elected, Etheridge would potentially join Simmons in the Rock Hall later this fall. Meanwhile, she’ll make good on her cross-genre comments by including a collaboration<\/a> with country star Chris Stapleton<\/a> called “Other Side of Blue” on her upcoming album, Rise<\/em>. <\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> The Best Song From Every Kiss Album<\/a><\/p>\n “Sometimes you just have to work up the nerve and ask somebody,” Ehteridge tells Rolling Stone<\/a><\/em>. “I called my manager [and] said, ‘I’m only interested in writing with one person, and that would be Chris Stapleton.'”<\/p>\n Etheridge says Stapleton is part of a new movement in country that sounds very familiar, since it calls back to an era when she had a run of Top 40 singles including “I’m the Only One” and “Come to My Window” from the six-times platinum Yes I Am<\/em>.<\/p>\n “I find myself turning on SiriusXM in the car, [stations like] Outlaw Country or the Highway. I always felt like I made music for people that drive cars and listen to music,” she said. “Then you listen to these artists, and they sound like ’90s rock and roll artists.”<\/p>\n Etheridge’s fellow 2026 Rock Hall nominees include Wu-Tang Clan<\/a>, who would follow recent hip-hop honorees like Eminem<\/a>, Tupac Shakur<\/a>, N.W.A<\/a>., Outkast<\/a>, the Notorious B.I.G.<\/a>, Salt-N-Pepa<\/a>, Missy Elliott<\/a> and Jay-Z<\/a>, among others. Unlike Simmons, Etheridge applauds their inclusion. <\/p>\n “There was that classic rock and roll we know,” she tells Rolling Stone<\/em>, “and then there’s everything that has been influenced [by it] and has that rock and roll spirit. That’s your R&B, rap and country.” <\/p>\n As for Simmons comments, Etheridge adds: “That says more about him than anything. Rock and roll is a feeling. You can’t bottle it up and say, ‘This is mine, not yours.'”<\/p>\n When the group gets inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame without you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gallery Credit: Jim Allen<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Think You Know Kiss?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\nHow Did Melissa Etheridge Respond to Gene Simmons?<\/h3>\n
Rock Hall’s Worst Band Member Snubs<\/h2>\n