Sympathy For The Devil

Each year, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony allows participants and fans to wallow in the mess that is personal and professional politics. Will this band be able to get along together long enough to stand at the podium to accept their trophies and snap a few photos before sitting back down to their chicken cordon bleu. Led Zeppelin put together a good face, the surviving members anyway. Even John Fogerty left his lawyers at home that night back in 1993 when Creedence Clearwater Revival had their moment. The Beach Boys managed to put all their bad blood behind them and put on tuxedos even. It was Mike Love, of those same Boys of Beach, who said of Sir Paul McCartney, who missed his own 1988 induction because of litigation with the other Beatles: "It's sad that there are other people who aren't here tonight," he said. "People like Paul McCartney who couldn't be here because he's in a lawsuit with Ringo and Yoko. That's why he sent in a telegram to some high-priced attorney in the room."
Paul wasn't the only one to ever skip out on the honor of being celebrated. Roger Waters didn't want to sit at a table with the rest of Pink Floyd in 1996, much less share a stage with them. The Sex Pistols sent a scrawled note, declining their invitation to the Hall in 2006. So when Axl Rose decided to turn his down this year in a slightly more lucid letter to the powers-that-be, it wasn't earth shattering. It was actually kind of affirming. Slash and the rest of the guys showed up to jam and enjoy the aforementioned chicken. Axl may have been in the studio putting finishing touches on "Chinese Democracy II." It would be nice to say that he was missed, but since he was booed in absentia, one wonders how the crowd might have reacted if he had made an appearance.
So we are left with the image of Axl, as an old man, strutting about the Old Rockers' Home with his headband and tricked-out walker, ranting at anyone who will listen: "I could have been in the Hall of Fame. They wanted me there, but I was too good for them. I told them where they could stick their little statue." And that's right where it will be: in somebody else's trophy case. Sleep tight, Axl.