NEW YORK – Five acts ranging from gangsta rap pioneers N.W.A. to hard rockers Deep Purple will enter the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but not everyone wants to celebrate together.
The shrine to rock history will also induct radio-friendly rockers Cheap Trick and Chicago and experimental bluesman Steve Miller at a gala evening concert at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
While many artists see the induction as career affirmation, the 2016 crop will feature notable absences – Deep Purple’s defining guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and former Chicago frontman Peter Cetera, who have both moved on from their original bands.
Fans will be watching closely to see whether N.W.A. returns with Dr. Dre, who went on to become a multimillionaire executive at Apple and did not show up for a one-off reunion show last year in Los Angeles.
Ice Cube, another of N.W.A’s original members, said on the eve of the ceremony that “everybody’s going to be there” – but that the rappers would not perform.
He voiced appreciation for the recognition but criticised organizers over the logistics for the event, which will be taped for later broadcast on HBO.
“I guess we really didn’t feel like we were supported enough to do the best show we could put on,” he told The New York Times.
N.W.A. is only the sixth rap act to enter the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which is based in Cleveland. Music experts vote on candidates – eligible 25 years after their first release – for induction.
The group, raised in the rough Los Angeles area of Compton, shocked much of white America with their in-your-face accounts of street life and police harassment.
N.W.A. won the nod on its fourth nomination shortly after the release of a hit Hollywood biopic on the group, “Straight Outta Compton.” Deep Purple – the last in a trio of British hard-rock forebearers, alongside Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, to enter the Hall of Fame – is responsible for one of rock’s most famous song openings with Blackmore’s heavy but bluesy riff on “Smoke on the Water.” Fans’ hopes for a reunion with Blackmore, who left the band in 1993 to pursue folk and other musical projects, were short-lived. Blackmore said he was told by the current Deep Purple that he was unwelcome.
Deep Purple’s singer Ian Gillan gave a more detailed explanation, saying that the Hall of Fame citation did not include two relatively new band members and that it would be unfair to exclude them from the performance, although all members were welcome to attend the ceremony.
Chicago, who adapted the jazz heritage of the band’s namesake city to become soft rock chart-toppers, had earlier indicated that the group would perform for the first time since 1985 with Cetera, who went on to a successful solo career.
But Cetera later said that he had failed to reach an agreement with Hall of Fame organizers on a reunion song.
“Personally, I’m frustrated and tired of dealing with this and it’s time to move on,” he said in an open letter, asking that his award be sent to him.
In sharp contrast to Deep Purple and Chicago, US heartland rockers Cheap Trick will appear with estranged veteran drummer Bun E. Carlos.
“We are so excited. It’s an honour and we’re not bitching about it one bit like everybody else does,” Cheap Trick frontman Robin Zander said of the Hall of Fame induction in an interview with radio host Howard Stern.
Cheap Trick, hailing from the blue-collar city of Rockford, Illinois, rose to fame through constant touring around the Midwest and eventually packed arenas – notably developing a strong fan base in Japan – with guitar-driven anthems such as “Surrender.” Carlos filed a lawsuit after the group removed him from touring in 2010. While the case was resolved, he does not appear on the band’s 17th studio album released earlier this month.
Steve Miller entered the cultural mix of San Francisco in the 1960s and brought together blues, jazz and American roots music, winning commercial success with the 1973 song “The Joker.” He still plays regularly at age 72 and devotes much of his time to guiding the musical instrument collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Despite this year’s absences no act plans to boycott entirely. Most infamous were punk icons the Sex Pistols, whose frontman Johnny Rotten refused to come and called the institution a money-hungry “piss stain.”
