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Tom
Waits

2011

Neil Young (Buffalo Springfield)

The free spirit who watched from the fringes. Tom Waits is a kind of modern troubadour, putting his husky, rasping voice to use singing his lyrical love letters to the outsiders, the drifters and the nonconformists.

Induction

"Rain Dogs"

Impact

Tom Waits is indescribable and I'm here to describe him

Neil Young

2011 Hall of Fame Essay

As is the case with a select few genre-defining artists such as Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, and Joni Mitchell,Tom Waits, over the course of his nearly forty-year career, has operated under the maxim “He not busy being born is busy dying...”

Written By Rob Bowman

sealed with a signature

This is the signature that appears on the inductee’s plaque at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to officially commemorate their induction.

Tom Waits

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