Steve Miller Gets Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame–and Then Immediately Rips it a New One

I was on board with the whole idea of a rock and roll hall of fame in the beginning. But the longer the official Rock Hall (well, official for the US, anyway) exists, the more I see it as an old it as a plaything for the music establishment’s old boys club. So does Steve Miller, one of this year’s inductees.

The Hall honoured this year’s crop of performers in New York last night: NWA (who dissed Gene Simmons), Deep Purple (there was internal drama with an important former member), Cheap Trick (ditto, but they fixed that), Chicago (ditto, but they didn’t fix it) and Steve Miller. And it was with Steve where things got really interesting.

Steve took his moment to call out the Hall for not including more women.

When he got backstage, he had a few things to say about the entire induction process. From the New York Times:

Asked to expand on his criticisms of the organization, which was founded by industry heavyweights like Jann S. Wenner of Rolling Stone and has its museum in Cleveland, Mr. Miller said, “The whole process is unpleasant,” suggesting that it be “changed from the top to the bottom.”

“They need to respect the artists they say they’re honoring, which they don’t,” the singer continued, making references to issues like licensing agreements between the show and its honorees. (Friday’s ceremony will be broadcast by HBO on April 30.)

Mr. Miller, 72, then turned to the ceremony itself. “When they told me I was inducted they said, ‘You have two tickets — one for your wife and one for yourself. Want another one? It’s $10,000. Sorry, that’s the way it goes,’ ” he said, adding, “What about my band? What about their wives?”

When a publicist for the Rock Hall tried to interrupt him, Mr. Miller persisted. “No, we’re not going to wrap this up — I’m going to wrap you up,” he said. “You go sit down over there and learn something.”

“This is how close this whole show came to not happening because of the way the artists are being treated,” Mr. Miller said, holding two fingers very close together.

Good to see that some people are still willing to call out The Man.