06.11.2016
ELVIS COSTELLO, TOM PETTY, LIONEL RICHIE, CHIC FETED AT SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME CEREMONY
Billboard: Jem Aswad: June 10th 2016
Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, Lionel Richie, Chic Feted At Songwriters Hall Of Fame Ceremony
This evening kicked off with Marcus Mumford inducting Elvis Costello (suitable because the two worked together on the recent New Basement Tapes album of Bob Dylan re-imaginings). “I’m going to do a quick bit of stand-up,” said before leading the house band into Costello’s “Pump It Up.”
“I’ve normally got three handsome boys with me,” he said, “but I’m here for Elvis Costello, my hero and I’m proud to say my friend. He should get them to build an extension [to the Songwriters Hall] because he’s got so many great songs. But [that song has] so many chords it’s a nightmare!”
Costello called himself “the least commercially successful songwriter you have ever inducted” and wondered “how in the world did I end up with my photo next to Marvin Gaye” in the event’s program book. He thanked Linda Ronstadt and her producer/manager Peter Asher for recording “Alison” in 1978, generating royalties that “kept the gas in my tour bus” as he made his case before audiences across the United States.