Although the actual induction ceremony was back in April, over the weekend HBO aired the ceremony in its entirety –three hours and 15 minutes of rock and roll. Clearly something I watch every year, these ceremonies are always full of fun surprises, exciting performances and a lot of f-bombs. This year promised some drama as Kiss refused to perform, Courtney Love was going to be in the building and Nirvana was going to perform but would have to find a worthy lead singer. Instead they found four. Additionally, the inductors were as flamboyant as the inductees – just ask Tom Morello who got me so excited about Kiss I wanted to go see them live again!
My favorite inductors and inductees:
Chris Martin of Coldplay – Peter Gabriel
Glenn Fry – Linda Ronstadt
Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine –Kiss
Bruce Springsteen – The E Street Band
Michael Stipe – Kurt Cobain
The highlights:
-Chris Martin is funny – who knew? His induction of Peter Gabriel was as clever as it was heartfelt and I’m glad the classic “In Your Eyes” scene in Say Anything… was mentioned.
-Glad that Glenn Fry inducted Linda Ronstadt and that he gave her full credit for the existence of the Eagles. Well done.
-After reading the recent cover article about Kiss in Rolling Stone I figured this was not going to be the friendliest induction. Glad I was wrong. Each band member thanked the others and although they refused to perform it was ok because Tom Morello’s induction speech was one of the best performances of the night.
-Bruce Springsteen fittingly inducted the E Street Band and went through each and every member and his recollection of meeting everyone for the first time so many decades ago. There is real history there and it is pretty amazing that all those people are still playing together.
-That being said Springsteen’s speech wasn’t my favorite as he focused more on his own accomplishments and kept saying how the E Street Band was “his” band. Unfortunately he came off a little arrogant and even mentioned how he and Steven Van Zandt argued when Springsteen was inducted into the Hall of Fame without the rest of the band in 1999. Long story short it’s good that the group finally got their induction.
-The main event was most definitely Nirvana’s induction. Michael Stipe looked like he wasn’t going to be able to make it through his induction speech but clearly he was the person to do it as he was a true friend of the band.
-Dave Grohl is probably the best public speaker in rock and roll and is without a doubt the classiest badass in rock and roll. He pointed out that he was Nirvana’s fifth drummer and recognized all four previous drummers. He is amazing.
-So glad that Courtney Love kept her remarks to a minimum. A train wreck is an understatement with that woman.
-Very cool to see Cobain’s mother and sisters – a shame that his daughter Frances couldn’t attend.
-Choosing four badass women to sing Nirvana songs was brilliant and honesty the only way it could have worked. Nice job Joan Jett, Lorde, Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) and Annie Clark (St. Vincent).
-And I agree with Krist Novoselic – I also can’t believe that Joan Jett is not in the Hall of Fame.
Leave a Reply