DEEP PURPLE – To Be Inducted Into Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame

To be eligible for nomination, an individual artist or band must have released its first single or album at least 25 years prior to the year of nomination. The 2016 nominees had to release their first recording no later than 1990.

The DEEP PURPLE members that are being inducted are: Ritchie Blackmore, David Coverdale, Rod Evans, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Glenn Hughes, Jon Lord and Ian Paice. Asked if he thinks that makes sense to bring in those people, Paice told Rolling Stone: “I suppose it does. Realistically, you’d like to think that anyone who was ever in the band made a contribution and should really be listed. It doesn’t matter if they were there for an album or two; everyone who was in the band actually contributed to the fact we’re still there. All these people, from the very beginning to the current lineup, [have] helped maintain PURPLE as a viable touring entity that a lot of people around the world really enjoy. So to pick some over others, I wouldn’t have done it that way.”

Paice also agreed that part of the problem why it’s taken so long for DEEP PURPLE to get inducted is the fact that so many voters are in America and DEEP PURPLE was never quite as big in the U.S. as the band was overseas. He said: “Of course, that does effect what people are aware of. If you’re not seen on the U.S. touring circuit very often, then why would U.S. voters pick you? It’s not a criticism. It’s just a reality of life. Certain parts of the world have different musical tastes now. I’m not saying there aren’t a lot of rock and roll fans in the States, but what is covered by the media and what is thrown in front of people by TV, like the flavor of the month, segregates things quite badly.”

He continued: “We’ll do a show where we’ll have a wonderfully mixed audience of kids in the front, then people that are slightly older until you get right to the back. In other countries, you just have an audience of more mature people or just kids. It’s been broken up in a way, which is so sad. The best shows are where everybody, of whatever age, are experiencing the same thing and getting the same buzz out of it. You need the kids to kickstart it, and once they get it going, the old folks remember why they went to a rock and roll show in the first place. It’s a wonderful feeling when it all kicks off like that. In the U.K. and the States, the media has cut the generations in half away from each other. It’s very sad.”

Source: Blabbermouth

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