Eh, while D&D had many influences to its aesthetics, the only reason people spent so many years pretending Tolkien wasn't a major one was, lawsuits brought or threatened by the estate that resulted in them filing the serial numbers off enough to stop being sued while pretending they'd never heard of this guy Tolkien.
If you read the original AD&D 2nd ed., you know the tone and subject matter is just completely different from Tolkien. AD&D is "eldritch horror" and "band of rogues", not "epic Greek tragedy in medieval garb".
Not really. D&D was inspired by Vance and Howard for the most part.