Alanis Morissette has addressed her absence from a planned duet on Carly Simon‘s “You’re So Vain” with Olivia Rodrigo at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony last Saturday (Nov. 7) in Los Angeles, implying that she backed out of the performance due to unspecified disrespectful treatment from the production crew.
Morissette rehearsed “You’re So Vain” with Rodrigo on Friday, but never showed up for the ceremony the following night, leaving Rodrigo to handle the performance by herself. None of the Rock Hall performers were announced ahead of time, so the audience was unaware of the drama as it was unfolding. “Thankfully, I am at a point in my life where there is no need for me to spend time in an environment that reduces women,” Morissette wrote on Instagram, adding that she’d “sucked it up on more occasions than I can count” in the past.
Simon was among an inductee class that also featured Dolly Parton, Duran Duran, Eminem, Pat Benatar, Lionel Richie, and Eurythmics, but did not attend the ceremony following the deaths of her two sisters one day apart last month. The event will be broadcast Nov. 19 by HBO.
Here’s Morissette’s statement in full:
There are some mis-informed rumblings about my not performing at The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony this past weekend. Firstly, I have to say how much I adore Carly Simon and Olivia Rodrigo and Dolly Parton and Janet Jackson and Pat [Benatar] and Sheryl Crow and Pink and Brandi Carlile and Sara Bareilles—and all the amazing people and artists who were there.
I have spent decades in an industry that is rife with an overarching anti-woman sentiment and have tolerated a lot of condescension and disrespectfulness, reduction, dismissiveness, contract-breaching, unsupportiveness, exploitation and psychological violence (and more) throughout my career. I tolerated it because nothing would stop me from connecting with those whom I cared about and resonated with. I live to serve and connect with people and so over the years I sucked it up on more occasions than I can count in order to do so. It’s hard not to be affected in any industry around the world, but Hollywood has been notorious for its disrespect of the feminine in all of us.
Thankfully, I am at a point in my life where there is no need for me to spend time in an environment that reduces women. I have had countless incredible experiences with production teams with all genders throughout my life. So many, and so fun. There is nothing better than a team of diverse people coming together with one mission. I’ll continue to show up in those environments with bells on.
