It was not that long ago that we mentioned how ling time Deep Purple bass player, Roger Glover, mentioned that he was not certain that the band would accept a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. That was before this year’s nominations came out and Deep Purple, who was a nominee the past two years, failed to make the group of Finalists this year. Lead Singer, Ian Gillan was recently asked by Radio Futoro in Chile, what his thoughts were on the Rock Hall snub, and below is the meat of his interview regarding this topic.
“Whatever I say about that is gonna sound wrong. But who the hell wants to be in an institution? The Hall of Fame thing, it’s an American thing, We don’t have that in England or Germany or Australia or Russia or anywhere in the world apart from America. And it’s an institution. What’s that got to do with Rock and Roll? Also, it’s run by these old guys who thought that the Monkees were America’s answer to the Beatles. They called us one hit wonders. So I don’t know what they were talking about, whether it was ‘Hush’, or ‘Black Night’ or ‘Strange Kind of Woman’, ‘Smoke on the Water’, ‘Child in Time’, ‘Highway Star’ or one of those one-hit wonders that we were.”
Hmmmm.
Although the Hall is based in the United States, it does have a large amount of British acts inducted; though only those who did have commercial success in the U.S.. Incidentally, Deep Purple does fall into that category as they have sold millions of albums in North America. Glover’s comment as to his band being referred to as one hit wonders has been written often, but he is correct that the band is known for a lot more than “Smoke on the Water”, though let’s be honest; that will always be what they are known mostly for! Incidentally, the Monkees aren’t in the Hall either, and I don’t recall the builders of the Hall having history writing flattering pieces on the former television stars.
We can’t blame Glover for sounding agitated by talk of the Hall. They have been eligible since 1994, and did not receive their first nomination until two years ago. Current Hall of Fame inductees, Metallica, have been on record multiple times championing the cause for Deep Purple to enter the Hall of Fame.
Currently, Deep Purple holds the number one spot on our annual list of those to consider for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Since our inception, they have never finished with a ranking lower than four.
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