Friday (July 29) morning, legendary guitarist Chuck Berry was honored in his hometown of St. Louis with the unveiling of an 8-foot-tall statue. Berry, 84, was on hand for the festivities and told Rolling Stone, "That sort of honor is seldom given out. But I don't deserve it."
Elvis Costello sent along a taped message of congratulations to Berry. "Congratulations to everybody for getting a beautiful statue of Chuck Berry put up in St. Louis where it belongs," Costello said. "I guess now the campaign begins to have another statue in every town that Chuck Berry mentioned in his songs."
The statue wasn't without some controversy, as a local resident tried to stop the monument due to Berry's checkered past. Despite getting over 100 signatures against the statue, the ceremony went on as planned. No protesters attended.
You can read the full report here.
Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" was recently voted the No. 1 classic rock guitar song of all time by Guitar World in our August issue. You can buy the issue here
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