Some call it pointless, others call it incredibly pointless,
I’m of course talking about the rock n’ roll hall of fame. With the hall of fame ceremonies
going on this week I thought it would be a perfect time to look at the rare times an
artist has stood up to the rock hall and told them to shove it. That’s exactly what Steve
Miller did half a decade ago and were going to explore the full story in today’s video.
In 2016 Steve Miller would be inducted into the rock n’ roll hall of fame with other overdue acts
including Cheap Trick, Chicago and Deep Purple. Also inducted that year would be rap group NWA
The rock hall has long been criticized for ignoring hugely influential acts,
having a mysterious governing body that chooses who gets in and who doesn’t in addition to giving
fans limited say and inducting rap and hip hop acts who aren’t considered rock n’ roll.
The run up to Steve Miller’s induction seemed like any other year. Even the ceremony seemed
to go off without a hitch despite Miller’s gentle criticism during his induction speech
saying : “I encourage you to keep expanding your vision, to be more inclusive of women,”
since his induction year had no women. He would also push the hall to support music
education. Then, everything changed as he talked to the press backstage.
The person who tries to interrupt him is the publicist for the rock hall
The whole process needs to be changed from the top to the bottom. it doesn't need to be this
hard. there's nothing fancy going on out there that requires all of this stuff. They need to get
their legal work straight. They need to respect the artists they say they are honoring, which they
don't I don't have any of my paperwork as signed. I have no licensing agreements with these people.
They're trying to steal footage, they're trying to make me endemnify them. When they told me I
was inducted they said you can 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.I said i'm playing here, what about my band,
what about their wives. What about. They make this so unpleasant that they came this close
they came no we're not going to wrap this one up. I'm gonna wrap you up you go sitdown over
there and learn something. So here's what you need to know this is how close this show came to not
happening because of the way the artists are being treated right now so I'll wrap it up right now.
Following his rant backstage, the rock hall put out a statement that read
Rock ‘n’ roll can ignite many opinions,” . “It’s what makes it so great. The Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame was honored to induct Steve Miller tonight and congratulates him.
Following the ceremony he would be interviewed by Rolling Stone Magazine. During the interview
he slammed the rock hall for being an amateur production. He would also slam the rock hall over
time constraints put on the artists during their performances, what they can say and who they can
invite. Each inductee gets two free tickets with subsequent tickets costing around $10,000 each. He
would elaborate further on his frustrations with the exchange with rolling stone going as follows
The interviewer would ask What do you mean by “amateur production”? To which he responded
“A hundred thousand phone calls; the contract work. The licensing still isn’t signed and
isn’t complete. Everybody is kind of a dick and an asshole. And every artist you talk to
will tell you that. You’re lucky that everybody didn’t fing walk out. It was very, very close.
If you’re an investigative reporter, get fing busy. K? Got enough? he'd say.
He would go on to criticize the committee who selects the inductees for not being transparent
and saying that they should be replaced.
Three weeks after his induction ceremony Steve Miller would appear on the Howard
Stern show on Sirius XM and inducting Miller that year would be inducted by The Black Keys,
which he also took issue with telling the radio host.
“I never was introduced to the Black Keys,”“I didn’t know who they were personally. I walked
in through security, and there’s this guy [Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach]
looking at me, making goo-goo eyes at me or something. I walk up to him, and I go,
‘What are you doing tonight?’ And he says, ‘I’m reading your speech.’ I say,
‘Oh, great. I can’t wait to get the f out of here.’ And I didn’t know who he was!
The Black Keys would also make their feelings known with guitarist and
frontman Dan Aurbach telling Rolling Stone “I don’t know,
we read a lot of things and we got a really uncomfortable feeling when we first met Steve,”
the frontman said. “He had no idea who we were. No idea. The first thing he told us was,
‘I can’t wait to get out of here.’ He knew that we signed up to do this speech for him. And he made
no effort to even — he didn’t even figure out who we were.”
So why did he show up to the rock hall if he had so many issues with it. Miller would
tell the magazine he came for his fans. NWA’s Ice Cube shared a similar sentiment as Miller
stating that NWA didn't get on stage to perform because and i quote
“We really didn’t feel like we were supported enough to do the best show we could put on.”
During Miller's interview with Howard Stern, he would claim that he was planning on
investigating the rock hall but the story seemed to die down shortly after that.
The Rock Hall for their part claims to be transparent releasing a list of nominees
each year allowing fans to vote. According to the rock hall's website they claim the body who votes
on who should be inducted each year is made up of 800 artists, historans and members of the music
industry. Their website reads “Factors such as an artist’s musical influence on other artists,
length and depth of career and the body of work, innovation and superiority in style and technique
are taken into consideration.” That does it for today's video guys thanks for watching. Be sure
to hit the like button and subscribe and we'll see you again on rock n' roll true stories. Take care.