Dionne Warwick on Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: ‘I still can’t figure that one out’

Dionne Warwick has seen a lot in her 83 years, but something truly surprised her in 2024.

The New Jersey music legend was announced as an incoming member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame .

Warwick, who officially joins the hall at the induction ceremony Saturday, says the honor is quite unexpected.

"I don't really consider myself rock 'n' roll, for one," she tells NJ Advance Media.

"They want to give it to me for reason," says Warwick, who was also nominated in 2021 and 2022. "I still can't figure that one out. I'm very appreciative of it as a reward for the work that I've done over the years. So I'm very looking forward to it."

The " Queen of Pop ," whose gentle yet powerful voice has nimbly scaled great heights, broke out in 1962 with the Burt Bacharach and Hal David -penned song " Don't Make Me Over ," the first single from her debut album " Presenting Dionne Warwick " (1963). The lyrics, soaring through Warwick, made an appeal for love and acceptance.

What would 1962 Warwick say to something called the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (which inducted its first class in 1986)?

"No, thank you," says the singer, who lives in South Orange .

Warwick enjoyed huge success working with the Bacharach and David, launching a multi-decade career with toe-tapping hits that soared up the Billboard chart.

In the first decade alone, they included " Anyone Who Had a Heart " (1963), " Walk on By " (1964), " I Say A Little Prayer " (1967) and the Grammy-winning songs " Do You Know The Way To San Jose " (1968) and " I'll Never Fall in Love Again " (1969).

Warwick, who has recorded 40 studio albums and sold more than 100 million records, is not being inducted into the rock hall as a performer, but as a recipient of its musical excellence award .

According to the hall, this award honors "performers, songwriters and producers who have changed the course of music history" ... artists who "have dedicated their lives to creating influential, important music infused with originality, and have achieved a level of timeless distinction."

Warwick has long been recognized as a crossover artist who bridged the gap between R&B and pop audiences in the '60s. She maintained her presence on the Billboard Hot 100 in the '70s and '80s.

"When I happened in the '60s, there was really nothing that was comparable to what I was singing," Warwick says. "I had two of the most prolific songwriters of our time in Bacharach and David, and I was the component, (the) part that worked for listening ears. So we kind of cut our own little niche out in the music industry and gave people an opportunity to hear music in a different way."

'They may have to change the name' Because Warwick made her debut in the '60s, she has been eligible for the rock hall since the '80s.

On Saturday, she'll be in Cleveland both to accept the honor and perform, like fellow 2024 inductees Mary J. Blige , Cher , Foreigner , Peter Frampton , Dave Matthews Band and Robert "Kool" Bell from Jersey City's Kool & the Gang .

"I feel that they may have to change the name of the award itself," Warwick says of the rock hall's inclusion of genres beyond rock. "It's now gotten to the point where it's becoming a music award. That would be ideal, the appropriate name now, as opposed to rock 'n' roll, because it's not only rock 'n' roll."

(Maybe the Music Hall of Fame — though there's also a Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville.)

Warwick has worked with artists from a wide variety of genres and sounds in her long career, whether it be The Spinners (" Then Came You ," 1974), the Bee Gees (they wrote her 1982 hit " Heartbreaker ") or the superstar team of Gladys Knight, Elton John and Stevie Wonder .

Wonder, Knight, John and Warwick scored a No. 1 hit with their 1985 cover of " That's What Friends are For ," originally recorded by Rod Stewart).

The song raised millions of dollars for AIDS research , won the Grammy for song of the year in 1987 and became a staple at weddings, Sweet Sixteens and bar and bat mitzvahs everywhere.

As chronicled in the 2021 Warwick documentary " Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over ," Warwick's AIDS activism included making then-President Ronald Reagan say "AIDS" out loud . ("He wanted to kill me ," she says in the film. "I saw it in his eyes.")

When Warwick became the reigning queen of Twitter (now X) early in the COVID-19 pandemic for her winning quips and observations, she had exchanges with artists including Chance the Rapper . The two talents joined forces for the 2021 song " Nothing's Impossible ."

Warwick also teamed up with country legend Dolly Parton in 2023 for the song " Peace Like a River ," produced by Warwick's son Damon Elliott.

A family affair Warwick's cousin Whitney Houston , who rose to pop glory in the '80s , was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2020 .

Houston, whose powerhouse delivery gave her the nickname " The Voice ," was 48 when she died in 2012.

At her hall of fame induction, Houston's family said she had hoped to be chosen for the hall.

"It's a wonderful feeling to know that she, first of all, has been honored, and rightfully so," Warwick says. "It's also nice to be coupled with family members. It's a sensational thing."

Houston's mother, Grammy-winning gospel singer Cissy Houston , 91, died Oct. 7.

The elder Houston, Warwick's aunt, sang backup for musical giants like Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, Aretha Franklin, Van Morrison, Bette Midler, David Bowie, Beyoncé, Luther Vandross, Linda Ronstadt, Diana Ross, Chaka Khan and Paul Simon.

As Warwick got ready for the rock hall induction earlier this week, preparations were underway for Houston's celebration of life service at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark .

Warwick's own musical journey is rooted in the same church and in gospel music .

Her mother, Lee Drinkard Warrick , Cissy's sister, managed the Drinkard Singers , the family's gospel group.

Before Warwick recorded demos for Bacharach, which led to her career in pop, a young Dionne sang in the Gospelaires with her sister, Dee Dee Warwick . (Dionne and Dee Dee were born with the last name Warrick, but the new name stuck after the original was misspelled on "Don't Make Me Over." )

Later, the Gospelaires, Cissy Houston included, would sing backup on "Don't Make Me Over," which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000.

Celebrating a Jersey legend (and keeping her music alive) The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is just the latest in a long list of honors for the music icon.

Warwick has six Grammys , including a Grammy lifetime achievement award , which she received in 2019. Last year, she was celebrated at the Kennedy Center Honors .

And just last week, East Orange officials renamed a street Dionne Warwick Way (North Arlington Avenue near city hall).

"I said last night to my cousin I think I'm still floating about that," says Warwick, who grew up in East Orange and graduated from East Orange High School in 1959.

A local school — the Dionne Warwick Institute of Economics and Entrepreneurship on Central Avenue — also bears the beloved singer's name.

Students from the school, the Warwick Wailers, sang at the street renaming, which was attended by Clive Davis , who signed both Warwick and Whitney Houston to Arista Records, and Don Lemon , the former CNN anchor who hosts "The Don Lemon Show."

"I feel the love," Warwick says. "It's a wonderful thing to be recognized in any form, but to be given that kind of an honor, and right outside the city hall, which is even better, it makes it a permanent thing, like my school ... people can go and look, 'hey, look at that — I know her,'" she says with a laugh. "You know, it's a wonderful feeling."

In 2023, Warwick was also delighted to find that the rapper and singer Doja Cat had sampled " Walk on By " in her No. 1 hit " Paint the Town Red ."

"I think it's something that I've been hoping would happen," she says, welcoming the chance for music from artists of her generation and successive generations to find younger audiences.

"It's keeping our music alive," Warwick says. "It's also giving them an opportunity to hear some great music ... (Doja Cat) kind of put me back out there, let people know this is my song. It's the whole way through her recording. I had no idea that that was going to happen."

Biopic, Elon Musk and the future Warwick's music and her story are also being celebrated through film.

The " Don't Make Me Over " documentary used Warwick's point of view to tell that story, and an upcoming biopic is set to dramatize her journey with actor and singer Teyana Taylor in the lead role.

Taylor, 33, who is also known for her work as a dancer, choreographer, model and music video director, earned raves and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for her performance in the 2023 movie " A Thousand and One ."

Taylor will be on hand to induct Warwick at the rock hall Saturday. Her resemblance to the singer (see Instagram post below) has built anticipation for the biopic.

"It's been wonderful," Warwick says of the filmmaking process, which Damon Elliott said was in motion earlier this year. "She has done quite good homework, I'll tell you that. She knows more about me than I know about myself."

And Warwick still has an active presence on Twitter , even though it's no longer Twitter .

The singer's hit tweets landed her a recurring " Saturday Night Live " segment in which she was played by cast member Ego Nwodim . Warwick even made a guest appearance on the show in 2021.

"It's been quite interesting how it has changed quite a bit," she says of Twitter , which new owner Elon Musk renamed X in 2023.

"I keep up on what's happening, because being associated with this, I want to make sure that (it's) exactly the way does things, not the way he does things."

Through it all, Warwick continues to perform across the globe.

This month, she has three shows in Brazil before she's back in Jersey Nov. 7 at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood.

Warwick, who will be 84 in December, currently has no plans to retire from touring and live performances.

"When I feel that I have not been able to reach the bar that I have set for myself, that's when I'll say, 'you know, it's been wonderful. Thank you very much, and there I go,'" she says. "When I feel that happens, where we have to give lyrics or I have to use a teleprompter or any of those crazy things that happen during the course of time with a lot of our singers ... (I don't) need for me to do something that I know I'm not capable of doing."

Until then, Warwick will keep going wherever the music takes her.

"I'm following a path that has been kind of designated already for me. God put me on a road here to walk a certain path and that's what I'm doing. And whatever happens next happens. I don't know what's going to happen next," she says with a chuckle.

"I wish I did, but I don't."

Stories by Amy Kuperinsky

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