2012.04.14 - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - Induction and Acceptance Speeches (& related articles)

The video is the official edited version as aired on HBO. The transcript is from unedited audience recordings, so some parts in it are not included in the video.



Billie Joe Armstrong: I’m so glad all my facebook friends are here tonight. Hello, we are Green Day. My name is Billie Joe, this is Mike and this is Tré Cool, and we’re here to induct Guns N’ Roses into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The first time I saw Guns N’ Roses on MTV, I thought, “One of these guys could end up dead or in jail.” The opening riff for Welcome to the Jungle is a descending trip into the underworld of Los Angeles. This ride was not about parties, glamour or power ballads. It was about the seedy underworld of misfits, drug addicts, paranoia, sex, violence, love and anger in the cracks of Hollywood. It was a breath of fresh air. Needless to say, I bought the record. Appetite for Destruction is the best debut album in the history of rock ‘n’ roll. You could name a few others if you want, but tonight Guns N’ Roses owns that crown, for sure. Every song hits hard on all emotional levels. It takes you on a trip through the seedy underworld of Los Angeles in brutal sequence: Welcome to the Jungle, It's So Easy, Nightrain, Out Ta Get Me, Mr. Brownstone, Paradise fucking City, My Michelle, Think About You, Sweet Child O' Mine, [sings] “You're fucking crazy…”, Anything Goes and Rocket Queen. Jamming in a sweaty hole in the wall, writing songs on pizza boxes and bar napkins, looking for a free drink and a place to crash, and they did it for the love of playing loud, loud-ass rock ‘n’ roll music. The thing that set them apart from everyone else is guts, heart and soul. And most importantly, they told the truth and painted a picture of the mad world that they lived in. I fucking hated power ballads. I hated jock party anthems. As a young musician, I craved something more. Appetite for Destruction delivered. Ultimately, they became the biggest and best rock ‘n’ roll band and that was off one album.

After that, Guns N’ Roses delivered with GN'R Lies — half live album and half an acoustic record. Most people think acoustic records might show off the more sensitive side of a rock musician. (Laughing) It's not sensitive. But this record made them come across as outlaws and they never lost their edge for one second. [Audience member: “I used to love her!”] … But I had to kill her! The song Patience is an eternal ballad about love and anxiety as if the character was trying to talk himself off the edge of a 20-story building. There's also the humor of “I used to love her but...” [Audience: “I had to kill her”] Who knows if that's humor? As they say, every joke has its truth. And One in a Million… that's when the shit hit the fan. It basically told the story of an ignorant farm boy that moved to a diverse unknown city, and that's all I will say about that.

And then they delivered not one, but two albums, Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, the new GN'R records that had fans literally crashing the record stores to hear what Guns had come up with next. These records showed off a wide range of rock anthems — Right Next Door To Hell, You Could Be Mine – to grand piano ballads like November Rain and Don't Cry, then taking the listener into unknown head trips that maybe a serial killer could understand? This era of the band took them to new global heights, touring arenas and stadiums, big-ass expensive videos and public pretties, outcry, meltdowns, controversy and playing in countries that Duff can't even remember being in. All the ingredients of a great rock ‘n’ roll band.

Steven Adler, your drumming [applause from the audience] … Steven Adler, your drumming on Appetite for Destruction was perfect. It was like the perfect combination between slamming hard rock songs and laying into a great groove. It's fucking unbelievable, man. Great.

Matt Sorum… you took over seamlessly and you brought in, um… what did you bring in? You brought in new dynamics and power and your first gig was Rock in Rio (laughs). Welcome to the band!

Dizzy Reed, you play a mean keyboard. Keep up with the good job.

Duff McKagan… the Seattle transplant punk rock kid. You're like Johnny Thunders with a bass. The bass line to Sweet Child O' Mine is so good, you can sing along to it. And you got a great family over here, all proud of you and shit. And you were in a band called The Fartz (laughs).

Izzy Stradlin… [makes gestures of searching] Wherever you are, I hope you can hear me right now. You're probably driving an RV across Egypt right now. You're like the Miles Davis of rock ‘n’ roll. The way you played and weaved with Slash was an effortless craft. You've got that fucking Ronnie Wood mojo, I'll tell you that right now.

Gilby Clarke, I love you. Where are you? Gilby Clarke. He's out there somewhere.

Slash... [loud audience applause] While every guitar geek in L.A. was riding on the coattails of Eddie Van Halen, you took a totally different approach. You bridged the gap between Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Joe Perry and you brought it into your own modern era. I can immediately identify your leads and riffs because you embodied them. Your guitar playing is an extension of your heart and soul. To see you without a guitar and a top hat is just plain weird. You know, originally, they wanted us to play Guns N’ Roses songs, Green Day to play Guns N’ Roses songs. So I've got a 13-year-old son and he’s learning how to play guitar from YouTube, and so he's playing, like, Strokes songs and he's getting really good at it. And they asked us to play, and I thought, “Well, I could learn how to play 'Paradise City” from YouTube, you know, because my son's doing it. And there was this 12-year-old kid on YouTube playing Paradise City better – he was a better guitar player than I could possibly ever be. And I just thought to myself, “Guys, we are not going to play. There's no way we could do this justice — it's impossible. So… thanks for making me look bad in front of my 13-year-old son, Slash.

And let's see, who am I missing? [booing from the audience] No, no, whoa, whoa!

Mike Dirnt: Easy… (Laughter)

Billie Joe Armstrong: Zap, zap. You know... [audience members continue booing] No, shut the fuck up. Shut up. Shut up. This man is a bad-ass fucking singer. He’s one of the best frontmen to ever touch a microphone. Your lyrics are heartfelt, passionate, angry.... and you tell the truth, no matter what the cost. Your vocal range goes from a quiet whisper to a powerhouse until you’re screaming bloody murder. [Singing] And you’re fucking crazy… Hey, most singers are crazy; I can vouch for that right now.

But, you know, being in a band is a very complex thing. You go through eras and chapters of your life. Most people don't go through any eras or chapters. They just sit around and watch TV and do the same thing over and over again every single day. But being in a band, your eras and your chapters are your albums. That's your craft. You can name that time of your life. That's an era of your life right there. You talk about where you were at when you wrote this song. You talk about where you recorded it. You talk about the first time that you ever played it. This is your life. This is our lives. This is what we do. But sometimes, you gotta look back at the old chapters if you want to move forward. And the reason why you have to look backwards, is to know where you fucking come from. Ladies and gentlemen, Guns N’ Roses!

Duff: Thank you, Billie Joe. I’m Duff McKagan. Hello, Cleveland! I’m so honored to have met these guys in those back alleys in Hollywood, and we learned how to write songs together, we created brutality and beauty and told the truth all at once. But we were writing these songs for ourselves. We had no audience and we played our first gigs and suddenly we had people showing up to see us play. As we progressed, more and more fans came and they were relating to these songs. I don’t know if they were relating to us so much, but the songs spoke to them and… I don’t know if it matters who is here tonight, because it’s about the music that that band created. And music and art aren’t necessarily a competitive sport, so awards and these types of things are an odd deal, there’s no stats. I think the only stats we really had were these fans who started to really come out (?) and they believed in our band, and they believed in our songs, and they related to this subject matter, and somehow the angst that we felt suddenly the rest of the world could relate to. And it was overwhelming to see from 7 to 17 to 700 to 17,000 to 70,000 fans showing. I’d like to thank our original road crew, McBob/Mike Mayhue, Tom Mayhue, Adam Day and Mike Clink for capturing our sound on Appetite for Destruction and the Illusions records. But we’re here - and I want this to be heard: we’re here because we’re overwhelmed. I’m personally overwhelmed by you fans and the reaction when we were nominated for this thing around the fucking world. I honor you. Thank you.    

Steven: Hi guys, I’m Steven Adler. I play drums and the cowbell. I want to just thank a couple of people: Tom Zutaut, Teresa Ensenat, Vicky Hamilton and Mike Clink. I want to thank them for giving us the opportunity and the chance, and believed in us, and didn’t want to change us and they just let us be ourselves. And that was fucking cool, and it worked. Alright, I want to leave you with the words of the late great Freddie Mercury: “I’ve taken my bows and my curtain calls; you brought me fame, and fortune, and everything that goes with it.” And I thank you all.

Slash: Hi. [Loud applause from the audience] Thank you. Don’t make this any harder, I’m terrible with speeches, alright… But I do want to thank the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for this acknowledgment. But yeah, most importantly, I want to thank the fans, because the fans are the ones that made it possible for us to get together tonight, the fans that have been there since the beginning, and we’ve got new fans that have never seen the original lineup and they’re still rooting for us, and there’s legions of them. (?) But I also want to take a second, I gotta give credit where credit’s due. I gotta thank my wife as well, because when all the drama was going on, I started to just succumb to, like, “You know what, fuck it.” She said, you know, “Just go do it for the fans” and I said, “You know what, you’re right,” so I gotta give her credit. And then, also, I want to mention a couple of people who were really responsible for taking this derelict, fucked up, dysfunctional band, and seeing something in it, and going to the mat to get us signed and get us out there; and that was Tom Zutaut and Teresa Ensenat from Geffen Records, early on it was Vicky Hamilton who tried to manage us with all her heart, and ultimately Alan Niven who was the guy who was really the one that helped pull it all together and get us out there. We became the band that… (laughs)… that was born to lose and actually made it, so I want to thank all of them. But thank you all and… let’s go play.

Matt: That’s more than I’ve ever heard Slash talk in his entire life. The old expression in a band is “Never give the drummer a microphone.” Well, there’s two drummers up here tonight, so I’ve got a little something to say. I was originally in a band called the Cult when these two knuckleheads showed up at a gig, Slash and Duff. I’ll never forget it; they poured out of the limousine – you know, it was sort of a sauntering, sloshing kind of thing coming at me. I remember I wasn’t happy playing in the band I was in at the time and as a joke I said to my girlfriend at the time, “Hey, maybe I could play with those guys someday.” And I’m at my mom’s house, because, at the time, I had no money and I was basically a vagabond sleeping on couches and things – the Cult wasn’t paying me much (laughs). But I got a call from this guy. My mom comes to my room and she says, “There’s a guy on the phone named 'Swash' or 'Slush' or…” (?) So I pick up the phone, and it’s Slash on the other line and he says, “Matt, this is Slash…” I’m like, “Yeah, what’s up” and he says, “We had to kick our drummer out for doing too many drugs.” I said… (laughs) I said, “How the fuck is that possible with Guns N’ Roses!” (laughs) Steven Adler deserves an award for that. So Billie Joe from Green Day said to me – he said to you guys earlier, “What did Matt bring?” I brought cocaine (laughs). I used to describe it as walking into an opium den when I first joined the band. It was a bit dark and there was a thing they were doing called heroin at the time. I said, “You boys gotta wake up and we gotta make some rock ‘n’ roll, so you could try some of this shit” (laughs). And we went on to make these records called Use Your Illusions, and my first gig was 140,000 people at Rock in Rio. I remember getting out of the airplane in Rio de Janeiro and we were literally mauled. I felt like Ringo Starr for a moment, like what it must have felt like to be Ringo (laughs). I remember going on stage and just going, “Oh my god. Buckle up, my friend. You’re on the wild ride of your life,” and believe me, it was. And I want to thank the other band mates that aren’t here tonight, that I love and respect them and I’m honored to have been on stage with them and made music with them. (?) So it’s a part of me and I’m so honored to be up here with these guys who had a dream, they came to Hollywood on the Sunset Strip and they all somehow miraculously met each other, and you don’t get that many chances in life to have a creation like Guns N’ Roses, okay? (?) Now, to be on stage and talking here in front of guys like The Faces and The Small Faces. Steve Marriot, I met him in 1991 and he was one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll singers of all time; and I’m honored to be anywhere in the vicinity of you guys, okay? I’m the kid who grew up with The Song Remains the Same, Led Zeppelin, I love a band that’s not here yet, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath… You know, and all I wanted was to play in a rock ‘n’ roll band and now I’m at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That is just fucking crazy! Thank you very much and thank you to the fans! We love you. Thank you to Green Day as well. Cheers!

[Performance of three songs with Gilby on rhythm guitar and Myles Kennedy on vocals: Mr. Brownstone (not included in the video) with Matt on drums and Billie Joe Armstrong doing backup vocals; Sweet Child O' Mine and Paradise City with Steven on drums]

Los Angeles Times, April 16, 2012:
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Meet Guns N' Rose-less

The Rock Hall of Fame ceremony was minus not only Axl Rose but Rod Stewart and Adam Yauch too.

By Randy Lewis

CLEVELAND — Axl Rose wasn't the only musician who didn't show up to perform Saturday at the 27th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, but it was illness that kept Rod Stewart from reuniting with the Faces and Adam Yauch from joining with the Beastie Boys.

Rose's boycott of the 51/2-hour event generated the most sparks, however, because of his very public shunning of the ceremony and his decision not to join with his former bandmates as they became members of the Hall of Fame, which also inducted singer-songwriters Donovan and Laura Nyro and both incarnations of the British rock group the Small Faces and Faces.

Mentions of Rose's name drew catcalls and choruses of boos from many among the crowd of about 6,000 members of the public and 1,400 invited guests at the induction, held in the 89-year-old Cleveland Public Auditorium.

Rose bowed out because of long-standing resistance to acknowledging previous members of the long-running group (he owns the rights to the name).

Green Day lead singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, who gave the induction speech for Guns N' Roses, shot back, "Shut up! He's the greatest front man to ever step in front of a microphone."

Then Armstrong added, "But he is crazy. And I can vouch for that. Lead singers are crazy."

Former members of the group decided the show must go on with or without Rose. After accepting their statuettes, guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan, drummers Steven Adler and Matt Sorum played songs from GNR's 1987 debut album, "Appetite for Destruction," with Myles Kennedy, the singer for Slash's latest solo project, handling vocals on "Mr. Brownstone," "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "Paradise City." Latter-day Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke also joined them onstage.

McKagan took a diplomatic tack when making his acceptance remarks, saying, "It doesn't matter who's here tonight because this is about the music that band created."

Slash subsequently teamed with the Red Hot Chili Peppers after their induction for a set that concluded with an all-star jam also featuring former Faces and current Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood, Armstrong and funk pioneer George Clinton.

The Small Faces/Faces reunion performance also had to call on a substitute singer, with husky voiced Simply Red vocalist Mick Hucknall stepping in for Stewart, absent with strep throat.

And instead of performing without longtime cohort Yauch, who has cancer, Beastie Boys members Mike Diamond (a.k.a. Mike D) and Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) ceded their performance segment to a trio consisting of Kid Rock, Gym Class Heroes' Travie McCoy and the Roots' Black Thought outfitted in matching green Nike jogging suits.

Inducting Donovan, Indiana rocker John Mellencamp said the first album he ever bought was by Donovan and confessed that "I stole a lot from him.... Excuse me, people here would call that being 'influenced by' him."

Donovan, 65, responded by reciting a poem he said his selection for the rock hall had inspired and called being inducted "a singular honor.... It's the brightest searchlight on my music the world could beam."

Bette Midler choked back tears as she talked of her admiration for Nyro, who died of cancer at age 49 in 1997. Her only child, Gil Bianchinni, a rapper who uses the name Gil-T, accepted her award, saying the recognition would have made his mother proud.

E Street Band guitarist Steve Van Zandt made the induction speech for the Small Faces and Faces, saying, "Very few bands get a second chance, but very few bands have not one but two of the greatest white soul singers in rock 'n' roll history: Steve Marriott and Rod Stewart."

Marriott, who opened the door for Stewart to come in when he left the band to start Humble Pie, died in 1991. Bassist Ronnie Lane, who was in both iterations of the group, died in 1997.

Surviving members Kenney Jones, Ian McLagan and Wood played with Hucknall, who prefaced their performance that included "Ooh La La" and "Stay With Me" saying, "This isn't the easiest gig I've ever had."

Along with the six main performer inductees, Smokey Robinson ushered in the bands of six previously inducted frontmen: the Comets (Bill Haley), the Crickets (Buddy Holly), the Famous Flames (James Brown), the Blue Caps (Gene Vincent), the Midnighters (Hank Ballard) and his own colleagues in the Miracles. Thirteen surviving members of those groups appeared to receive the awards.

"Bands didn't play behind singers, they played together; they weren't backup singers, their harmonies made the songs complete," Robinson said.

The Ahmet Ertegun Award, named for the late Atlantic Records co-founder who also was instrumental in establishing the Hall of Fame, went to producer, publisher and TV show impresario Don Kirshner, who was saluted by songwriter Carole King, one of his former Brill Building writers in the '60s. Kirshner died last year.

The rock hall also formally recognized recording engineers for the first time, drafting three: Cosimo Matassa, who engineered pioneering records out of New Orleans; longtime Atlantic Records engineer and producer Tom Dowd; and British engineer Glyn Johns.

The ceremony, which will air on HBO on May 5, capped 11 days of run-up activities in Cleveland marking the recent completion of the hall's $7.2-million renovation.

The imposing I.M. Pei-designed facility also expanded with the addition of a $12-million, four-story library and archive housed nearby on the campus of Cuyahoga Community College, a repository for thousands of books, audio and video recordings focusing on the history of rock, pop, R&B;, soul and other pop music strains.

The induction festivities included the unveiling of bronze plaques outside the auditorium commemorating this year's class of honorees.

Hall officials plan to install upward of 300 more over the next two years saluting all those previously inducted.

https://web.archive.org/web/20151001004042/http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/16/entertainment/la-et-rock-hall-20120416

The Guardian, April 16, 2012:
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Guns N' Roses lead Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions

Despite objections from Axl, the feuding rockers are inducted alongside Donovan, Beastie Boys and Red Hot Chili Peppers

Despite many protests – including his own – Axl Rose has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Although he did not attend Saturday's gala, all of Guns N' Roses are among the Hall's 2012 official inductees, alongside Donovan, the (Small) Faces, the Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers and more.

"Let's see, who am I missing?" asked Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, who introduced a patchy version of Guns N' Roses. Rose said last week he would skip the event, saying the Hall "doesn't appear to be somewhere I'm actually wanted or respected". "I strongly request that I not be inducted in absentia," he went on, "and please know that no one is authorised nor may anyone be permitted to accept any induction for me or speak on my behalf." Soon after, guitarist Izzy Stradlin and keyboardist Dizzy Reed also decided to skip the induction.

Rose's principal request was ignored. He was indeed inducted into the Hall, much to the consternation of the crowd. As the audience reportedly chanted "Fuck Axl", Armstrong defended his hero. "Most singers are crazy, I can vouch for that," he said. "[Axl] is one of the best frontmen to ever touch a microphone."

With or without their leader, the remainder of Guns N' Roses performed a three-song set, including renditions of Paradise City and Sweet Child O' Mine. They were joined by one-time guitarist Gilby Clarke, and Alter Bridge's Myles Kennedy did his best impression of Rose's hard-rock caterwaul. "I don't know if it matters who's here tonight because it's about the music [our] band created," said Duff McKagan. He did later complain that Guns N' Roses had been admitted to the Hall before several of their heroes, including Kiss, Rush, Deep Purple and Iron Maiden. "I stole everything from [them]!"

Steve van Zandt introduced the Faces and the Small Faces, praising the massive influence of these British acts. "Not many bands get two lives or two of the greatest white soul singers in the history of rock'n'roll," he said. Though Rod Stewart's flu prevented the Faces' much-anticipated reunion, Simply Red's Mick Hucknall joined the musicians for performances of Ooh La La and Stay with Me.

Beastie Boys' Adam "MCA" Yauch was also absent from the show; although no reason was given, it's thought to be related to his receiving treatment for cancer. Adam "Ad-Rock" Horowitz read a letter from Yauch, who dedicated the award to his bandmates and to "anyone who has ever been touched by our band". The group was introduced by LL Cool J and Public Enemy's Chuck D, who hailed the Beasties as "one of the greatest live acts in music". "I wouldn't be here today without them," LL said.

John Mellencamp delivered a tribute to Donovan, holding up his copy of Fairy Tale, bought 47 years ago. "[He is] one of the original originals," Mellencamp said. "I wouldn't just listen to Donovan. I would live Donovan, which means I was stealing all my shit from Donovan. Other artists – and you know who you guys are – called that being inspired." Donovan came on stage to read a short poem, then played three songs – including a duet with Mellencamp on Season of the Witch.

Chris Rock sauntered on stage to introduce the Red Hot Chili Peppers at about 12:30am. "A lot of people are upset that Axl didn't come tonight," the comedian said. "But let's face it. Even if he was coming tonight, he wouldn't be here by now." The Chilis performed with former drummers Jack Irons and Cliff Martinez, and finished the show by leading a jam that included Ron Wood, Slash, Billie Joe Armstrong, Kenny Jones and George Clinton.

"How can we stop and take an award when really we're just halfway there?" Kiedis asked. "It's nice to be acknowledged, but we've [still] got work to do."

Other inductions at the 27th annual Hall of Fame gala included Laura Nyro, the Blue Caps, the Comets, the Crickets, the Famous Flames, the Midnighters, the Miracles, Freddie King, Don Kirshner, Cosimo Matassa, Tom Dowd and Glyn Johns.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/apr/16/guns-n-roses-rock-roll-hall-fame

Billboard, April 15, 2012:
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Guns N’ Roses, Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys Inducted Into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

By Gary Graff

Some of the key figures weren’t there, but those who were present at the 27th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday night delivered a heartfelt and epic celebration — much to the delight of both the high rollers at the VIP tables and the 6,000 “real” fans who whooped it up in the Town Hall balcony.

Much of the news leading up to the event focused on those who were skipping it, whether for health reasons (the Beastie Boys’ Adam “MCA” Yauch andthe Faces’ Rod Stewart) or because of lingering issues with bandmates — most notably Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose, who was roundly booed by the crowd every time his name was mentioned during the evening. But disappointment and hard feelings were scarce throughout the five-and-a-half-hour bash, which was packed with enough verbal and musical highlights to give HBO’s editors palpitations as they hone it down to two-and-a-half hours for its May 5 broadcast premiere.

Green Day, there to induct GNR, got things off to a crushing start with “American Idiot’s” “Letterbomb” as Billie Joe Armstrong exhorted the crowd to “stand up…This is f—ing rock ‘n’ roll! This is not a f—ing party — this is a celebration, motherf—ers!” That set the tone for a night that mixed musical fireworks with warm and emotional speeches, putting plenty of heart in rock ‘n’ roll and reveling in past glories to, as Armstrong also said, “know where you f—ing come from.”

So Bette Midler choked up as she remembered the late Laura Nyro as “the very essence of New York City, really, not in the gritty, real sense but in the passionate, romantic, ethereal, maternal sense. She would take the most ordinary people in the most ordinary situations and spin them into heroic figures…” Carole King noted that the “most fervent wish” of the late Don Kirshner, receiving the Ahmet Ertegun Award for non-performers, “was to be inducted in this iconic institution”; his widow, Sheila, noted that Kirshner would have turned 77 on April 17 and considered the induction “the best present he could’ve received.” Fortunately, Johnny Meeks of Gene Vincent’s Blue Caps — one of the six backing bands/vocal groups being inducted years after their frontmen — was there to be inducted the day before he turned 75.

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea let the tears flow freely as he thanks his mother, producer Rick Rubin and others — and recalled playing street football with former GNR drummer Steven Adler when they were teenagers together in Los Angeles. Bandmate Anthony Kiedis, meanwhile, thanked his longtime friend and cohort for helping him to get clean. And Ronnie Wood, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones each paid tribute to the late Small Faces members Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane.

There were moments of levity as well. Comedian Chris Rock’s hilarious induction speech for the Chili Peppers took at shot at the habitually late Rose — “Even if he was coming here tonight he wouldn’t have been here by now” — and also applauded the Chili Peppers for wearing black ties rather than tube socks on their, well, you know, for such a formal occasion. John Mellencamp, meanwhile, talked about first meeting Donovan, a hero since he was a youth (he brought a copy of an early album along to prove it), while he was having a fistfight with his guitarist at a Los Angeles recording studio. And LL Cool J joined the laughter as he described his first impression of the Beastie Boys as “punks.”

Despite what guitarist Slash called the “drama” surrounding GNR’s induction, the former band members who attended — original guitarist Izzy Stradlin and continuing keyboardist Dizzy Reed joined Rose as no-shows — credited fan support for their success, which was well received at Town Hall. Drummer Matt Sorum, meanwhile, spoke of being asked to join the group because Steven Adler had been kicked out for doing too many drugs. “I said, ‘In Guns N’ Roses, how the f— is that possible?!’ Steven Adler deserves an award for THAT.” Sorum also fessed up to bringing cocaine into GNR’s heroin-dominated drug mix; “I said, ‘You guys have to wake up and play some rock ‘n’ roll.”

The GNR alumni did just that, tearing through a three-song set fronted by Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge, who also sings for Slash’s band, and joined by onetime guitarist Gilby Clarke, who was not included in the induction. Armstrong guested on “Mr. Brownstone,” while “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and “Paradise City” had the Town Hall crowd on its feet and pumping its collective fists. The Faces skied in Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall — who’s been working with the group since 2009 — from England for a tight set that included the Small Faces’ “All or Nothing” along with “Ooh La La” and “Stay With Me.” And a consortium of the Roots, Kid Rock and Gym Class Heroes’ Travie McCoy — with the MCs in green Adidas track suits — paid homage to the Beastie Boys with a medley that included “Sabotage” and “No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn.”

ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill joined forces with Derek Trucks and Joe Bonamassa for a fierce Freddie King salute of “Hideaway” and “Goin’ Down.” Donovan capped his three-song set by dueting with Mellencamp on “Season of the Witch.” Sara Bareilles celebrated Nyro with “Stoney End,” 2011 inductee Darlene Love sang “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” in honor of Kirshner and Ledisi sang “At Last” for the In Memorium segment.

The Chili Peppers rocked the night to a close with “By the Way,” the recent hit “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie” and a rendition of “Give It Away” that flanked drummer Chad Smith with predecessors Cliff Martinez and Jack Irons. The group was also charged with the night’s all-star finale and coaxed the Faces’ Wood and Jones, Armstrong, Slash, George Clinton and Funkadelic guitarist Michael Hampton on stage for a romp through Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground.” “Thanks for sticking around,” Kiedis told the weary but still wired crowd – as if anybody would have really considered the alternative.

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/guns-n-roses-chili-peppers-beastie-boys-inducted-into-rock-and-roll-hall-1097954/

The New York Times, April 15, 2012:
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Anointing Rock Legends From the Coasts

By Ben Sisario

CLEVELAND — The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, a gleaming glass pyramid on the shore of Lake Erie, has become a proud symbol of this city. And Cleveland’s rock fans turned out in droves for the hall’s 27th induction ceremony on Saturday, only the third time it has been held here.

But this year much of the show’s music was rooted squarely in the country’s entertainment capitals of New York and Los Angeles. Guns N’ Roses and the Red Hot Chili Peppers represented two branches of 1980s California rock: metal and punk. And the Beastie Boys and the mercurial songwriter Laura Nyro, if they have anything in common, were celebrated as but two slices of New York’s huge multifaceted musical culture.

The ceremony, at the stately Public Auditorium — a 1920s Beaux-Arts monolith a few blocks from the museum — also honored Donovan; the blues guitarist Freddie King; the linked British invasion bands Small Faces and the Faces; the music executive Don Kirshner; and an array of backup groups.

And in between encomiums, blistering jams and shaggy-dog stories about rockers’ early years, musicians spoke of cities as inspiration, common ground or hell.

“The opening riff of ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ is a descending trip into the underworld of Los Angeles,” said Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day as he introduced Guns N’ Roses. “It was about the seedy underworld of misfits, drug addicts, paranoia, sex, violence, love and anger in the cracks of Hollywood.”

“It was a breath of fresh air,” he added, with a smirk.

Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys, only the third hip-hop act to make it into the hall, thanked New York as muse almost as many times as they thanked family members and business associates.

“Thank you, New York City, for basically raising us and giving us all the music we love and grew up on,” Mr. Diamond said, as he recalled the exhilaration of riding the subway and hearing “punk rock, New Wave, salsa, soul — it was all there.”

Bette Midler, wiping away tears, portrayed Nyro, who died of cancer in 1997, as an earth mother of the Upper West Side and a chronicler of New York on an elevated poetic plane.

“She was the very essence of New York City,” Ms. Midler said. “Not in the gritty, real sense but in the passionate, romantic, ethereal, maternal sense. She would take the most ordinary people in the most ordinary situations and spin them into heroic figures.”

As always, the night featured performances by seemingly as many rock stars as could fit on the stage at once. The Red Hot Chili Peppers played with Slash of Guns N’ Roses, George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic and Ronnie Wood of the Faces and the Rolling Stones. For a Beastie Boys tribute, Kid Rock, Black Thought of the Roots and Travie McCoy of Gym Class Heroes rapped in old-school green Adidas jumpsuits.

No Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony would be complete without some backstage drama to underscore the raw feelings of the music (as well as the music industry’s continual clash of millionaires). This year Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses filled that role, declaring in a public letter that he would not attend and therefore would not reunite with his estranged band.

“I strongly request that I not be inducted in absentia,” Mr. Rose wrote, “and please know that no one is authorized nor may anyone be permitted to accept any induction for me or speak on my behalf.”

The night was marked by other absences as well. Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys, who has cancer, did not appear, and Rod Stewart, citing the flu, missed the chance to play with Mr. Wood, Kenney Jones and Ian McLagan in the Faces.

Many musicians made reference to the complex politics of the Rock Hall itself. Artists become eligible 25 years after the release of their first recording and are voted on by about 500 industry executives, journalists and previous winners.

Donovan, the Scottish-born singer of hits like “Sunshine Superman” and “Mellow Yellow,” called the award “the grandest searchlight on my music that the world could ever beam.” But in reciting a nearly two-minute poem of thanks, he also seemed to hint at the politics behind the inductions.

“I thank you for this bright green laurel resting now upon my brow,” Donovan said. “I thank you, goddess, and I thank you, muses, and I thank my fellow artists all.”

When the Rock Hall inductions began in 1986, it was a pantheon in need of a home. Most ceremonies — even after the museum in Cleveland opened in 1995 — have taken place at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. But the organization says it plans to cycle the event through Cleveland every three years, a welcome move for the city’s rock fans.

Cleveland had 10 days of events leading up to the inductions, including public concerts and the opening of the hall’s new library and archives, a repository of documents and memorabilia by hundreds of musicians and industry figures.

After more than a quarter-century of enshrinements the hall of fame has begun to tie some of its more awkward loose ends. This year Smokey Robinson inducted players from six classic rock and soul groups whose more-famous frontmen had long since made the cut: James Brown’s Famous Flames; Hank Ballard’s Midnighters; Bill Haley’s Comets; Buddy Holly’s Crickets; Gene Vincent’s Blue Caps; and Mr. Robinson’s own group, the Miracles.

The hall was careful to identify those musicians officially as performers, not sidemen. But in his speech at the beginning of the night Jann Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone and chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, called them “backup groups.”

“We overlooked you years ago when we first inducted your well-known leaders,” Mr. Wenner said. “But we’re very glad to have you in the Hall of Fame at last.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/arts/music/rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-inducts-guns-n-roses-beastie-boys-and-red-hot-chili-peppers.html