Leo Fender
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Year:
1992
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Inducted by:
Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones)
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Category:
Ahmet Ertegun Award
Introduction
Leo Fender’s solid-body electric guitar changed rock music forever.
A Fender guitar has something special—call it crunch, bite, twang—that makes it the guitar of choice for such virtuosos as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix.
Hall of Fame Essay
1992
It would be difficult to imagine rock & roll — both its sound and its spirit — without the contributions of Clarence Leo Fender.
Jimi Hendrix used a Fender Stratocaster to create his most distortion-drenched masterpieces. Jeff Beck employed a Fender Telecaster to play his jagged, quirky riffs with the Yardbirds. The late Stevie Ray Vaughan spun his muscular blues on a vintage Strat.
Following the Rolling Stones’ induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Keith Richards (a Telecaster man) thanked “God, for Leo Fender, who makes these instruments for us to play.”
