Someone disagreed with Ice Cube's declaration during N.W.A.'s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction Friday. "The
question is: Are we rock and roll? I say you're (damn) right we’re rock
and roll," Ice Cube stated at the podium as the seminal gangster rap
group made their acceptance speeches. But on Saturday, KISS frontman Gene Simmons tweeted his disapproval, asking the rapper to let him know when Jimi Hendrix will be inscribed in the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame. (And in case you're wondering, yes, it exists. It's
not the first time Simmons complained about the politicking behind the
selections or questioned whether hip-hop acts — or any non-rock artists —
belong in the Rock Hall of Fame.
"It’s really back-room politics, like Boss Tweed," he told Radio.com in a 2014 interview. "A few people decide what’s in and what’s not. And the masses just scratch their heads. You’ve got Grandmaster Flash in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Run-D.M.C.
in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? You’re killing me! That doesn’t mean
those aren’t good artists. But they don’t play guitar. They sample and
they talk. Not even sing!" He didn't single out rap artists but he made it clear he holds a rather orthodox view on who belongs in the Rock Hall of Fame. "if
you asked Donna (Summer), ‘What kind of artist are you?’, do you think
she would say ‘rock?’ If you asked Madonna, ‘What kind of artist are
you?’ do you think she would say, ‘Oh, rock!’ So what they hell are they
doing in the Hall of Fame? They can run their organization any way
they’d like, but it ain’t rock! It just isn’t! If you don’t play guitar
and you don’t write your own songs, you don’t belong there."In
that 2014 interview, Simmons also raised some of the same issues that
new inductee Steve Miller complained about Friday in the press room —
namely the Hall of Fame organizers' restrictions on which band members
can be inducted and which can attend the ceremony.
Simmons
said that when KISS learned they would be part of the Hall of Fame's
class of 2014, he and the other band members were taken aback by what
the organizers told them. "Our contemporaries, the Eagles, are in
the Hall of Fame, and every single member that has been in the Eagles is
inducted. And so when they offered the induction to us, we graciously
said thank you. But then they said, “Only [founding members] Ace [Frehley],
Paul [Stanley], Peter [Criss] and Gene get to be in.” So we said, “OK,
thank you.” And so we called up [former members] Ace and Peter and said,
“Congratulations, we’ll proudly stand alongside you, accept the award.” This slight played into the band's decision not to perform at their own induction. "We
said, 'You’re not going to honor [current guitarist] Tommy [Thayer] and
[current drummer] Eric [Singer], who have been in the band for twenty
years, two and a half times longer than the original lineup. And they’re
supposed to stay home?'”
by
(Photo: Frederick M. Brown, Getty Images)
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