"If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry.'"
— John Lennon
- Chuck Berry was the first person inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. His inscription reads: “While no individual can be said to have invented rock and roll, Chuck Berry comes the closest...”
- Eric Clapton, Brian Wilson and Mick Jagger have acknowledged Berry’s influence on their own work. Rolling Stone Keith Richards said, “... I lifted every lick he (Berry) ever played!”
- From a May 2009 story in Rolling Stone: “In the pecking order of rock & roll survivors, Bob Dylan sees himself as number two, behind only Chuck Berry.”
- As film director Taylor Hackford asks, “How many geniuses of American culture has St. Louis produced in the 20th century? It’s a handful of truly great people that you look at and say, ‘Oh my God! Our culture is because of these people.’”
“Chuck Berry is the most important figure in Rock & Roll, without a doubt.”
— Taylor Hackford,
Academy Award winning-Director for “Ray.”
Scale model of the proposed Chuck Berry statue.