Steve Miller was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Friday night. Rather than revel in the honor, however, the classic rocker spent most of the night ripping the Hall’s organizers.
During his induction speech, Miller criticized the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for its lack of female inductees. When asked to expand on his comments in a post-induction interview, Miller responded, “The whole process needs to be changed from the top to the bottom. “They need to get their legal work straight. They need to respect the artists they say they’re honoring, but they don’t.”
He also took issue with his own treatment. Miller alleged to only receive two tickets to tonight’s ceremony, one for him and one for his wife. For additional tickets, Miller said he would have had to pay $10,000.
When a spokesperson attempted to cut him off, Miller told press, “No, we’re not gonna wrap this one up — I’m going to wrap you up … This is how close this show came to not happening, because of the way the artists are being treated right now.”
Update – Monday, April 11th at 2:40 p.m. CT: Rolling Stone has published an interview with Miller conducted following his induction. In addiction to slamming the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame committee, he also took shots at his own record label:
“All the people that were sitting in the front row tonight, like the guy that came from my record company, I wanted to pull him by his necktie and kick him in the nuts.
“He’s made a billion dollars off my work over the last 50 years and the motherfucker just came over and introduced himself tonight. That cheery little thing. You know he won’t do any contract work, he won’t clean anything up, he won’t get anything done.
“This whole industry fucking sucks and this little get-together you guys have here is like a private boys’ club and it’s a bunch of jackasses and jerks and fucking gangsters and crooks who’ve fucking stolen everything from a fucking artist. Telling the artist to come out here and tap dance.
“I came out here for my fans. I came out for the people who take it seriously. And if the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame wants to be taken seriously, they need to put their books out in the public. They need to fucking become transparent. They need to stop lying. They need to stop all the bullshit and they need to clean it up and they need to expand it. They need to include a lot more people. And the most important thing is the fucking board of this”
