Deep Purple Singer: Rock Hall Band Member Exclusions Are ‘Very Silly’
Hard-rock legends Deep Purple will join the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame‘s 2016 class, but singer Ian Gillan is only half-thankful for the honor, calling it “very silly” that two current band members – guitarist Steve Morse and keyboardist Don Airey – will not be among the inductees. “Putting the past shenanigans to one side, the induction is not – in clear fact – for Deep Purple,” Gillan wrote in a blog post, Loudwire reports.
The singer called the selection “arbitrary,” criticizing the Hall for not including Morse (a member since 1994) and Airey (who joined in 2002), “both of whom have been with the living breathing DP for a very long time.”
Gillan did muster a “thank you very much” but ended his note with a personal anecdote that drilled home his dissatisfaction. “This morning I got an invitation to a wedding from some dear old friends. Unfortunately my family was not invited and they said that I would be required to sit next to my ex (we divorced decades ago) at the wedding feast,” he wrote. “They were shocked when I called to thank them and decline the invitation.”
In an October interview with Classic Rock, the singer blasted the Rock Hall induction committee, saying, “I have no respect for them. They’re the kind of people that having seen A Hard Day’s Night decided that the Monkees would be America’s equivalent to the Beatles. They’ve no idea what goes on in the big, wide world outside of their self-arbitrating surroundings. To me, those people are bloody arrogant and rude.”
“I’ve heard that somebody on their committee dismissed us as one-hit wonders,” he continued. “I couldn’t figure out whether that hit was ‘Hush,’ ‘Kentucky Woman,’ ‘Black Night,’ ‘Strange Kind of Woman,’ ‘Child in Time,’ ‘Perfect Strangers,’ ‘Knocking At Your Back Door’ or perhaps even ‘Smoke on the Water.'”
The selected members of Deep Purple will join Cheap Trick, Chicago, N.W.A. and Steve Miller in the 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction class, with the ceremony scheduled for April 8th at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.