John Mellencamp took to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Stage to introduce Allen Grubman. “to speak out against all forms bigotry and hatred.”
Grubman, Mellencamp’s longtime attorney, was inducted in the Hall of Fame with the Ahmet Ertegun award, recognizing his decades of work in the music business. Mellencamp has been a customer since 1982.
Mellencamp described himself to be a “simple man.” “gentile”He took into consideration the hatred directed at Jewish people by Kanye West (now known as Ye), and reacted accordingly. While Mellencamp didn’t name the rapper, it was clear his anger was directed at the Antisemitic tropes he helped circulate.
Said Mellencamp: “Guys I cannot tell you how fucking important it is to speak out if you’re an artist. Whenever you hear hate speech or something derogatory about someone else … We’re all human things. I don’t give a fuck if you’re Jewish, Black, quiet, tutti frutti Tuttie fruttie, I don’t care! Here’s the trick: silence is complicity. … I’m standing here tonight loudly and proudly and in solidarity with Allen, his family, all of my Jewish friends and the entire Jewish people of the world. Fuck Antisemitism and fuck anybody who says anything in that manner.”
Grubman, whom Mellencamp called a “true mentch,”Reporters later discovered that he wasn’t aware of the speech beforehand. “I had no idea what he was gonna say; he wanted to keep it secret,”Grubman stated that the Rock Hall had requested copies of the notes for the night to display in the museum.
Allen Grubman
Christopher Polk, Variety