2012 Inductee: Ronnie Hawkins

Ronnie Hawkins has a way of landing in the middle of everything. From being born two days after Elvis Presley, to recording at the legendary Sun Records studio in Memphis in the 1950s, to anchoring the wave of rock and roll that swamped the Yonge St. strip in the 60s, to hosting John Lennon and Yoko Ono at his Mississauga Rd. farm as they launched their Peace Campaign in 1969, to playing Bob Dylan in Bob Dylan’s own movie, to acting in Heaven’s Gate — one of the biggest box office flops of all time — to dancing the Last Waltz with the boys in The Band — the Hawk has seen and done it all And quipped about it every step of the way.

He was born in Huntsville, Arkansas in 1935 — and reportedly did his first Camel Walk at the age of two.

He studied phys. ed at the University of Arkansas but really majored in rockabilly on the chitlin’ circuit. When his friend Gordon Jenkins, — stage name Conway Twitty — told him about how they loved southern-fried music in Canada, Ronnie was on his way north.

Turned out he was sentenced to be up here for 40 Years — and counting. He met and married Wanda and found a home on Yonge St. He mentored several generations of musicians in the best rock and roll finishing school of all time — Mr. Dynamo’s Nightly Bar-by-Bar World Tour.

Bob Dylan called Ronnie his “hero “ and said he was “the guru of rock and roll.”

He’s on Canada’s Walk of Fame and in the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and has won a Juno but his real claim to fame is that he’s never stopped believing in the hard core music he loves.

Through innumerable ups and downs, career breakthroughs and fallbacks, from disco to rap and back, Ronnie Hawkins has never wavered. He has remained true to the music he loves — old-school kickass rock ‘n roll.

So, Who Do You Love? How about the guy from down south who taught the Northland how to rock?