Welcome back to the jungle: Original GNR to be at the Hall

Billboard Magazine is reporting that all of the original members of Guns ’N’ Roses will be at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on April 14 in Cleveland.

Keyboardist Dizzy Reed confirmed that he’ll be in the house at the Public Hall with Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagen, Izzy Stradlin, Gilby Clarke, Matt Sorum and Steven Adler (how big is this freaking stage?). He didn’t say much else, as in, WILL THEY BE PERFORMING TOGETHER?

At the very least, this ensures that GNR will avoid the debacles served up by the Sex Pistols and Van Halen, when almost zero members showed up. There’s still a chance, however, they could pull something douchy like John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival:

Stay tuned.

Rock Hall ruminations: Steve Jones is Our Hero

Steve Jones, right, earns a Gold Medal for his efforts in the War on the Hall.

Yes, we've looked ahead to the potential Class of 2013, but despite what Boston said, it can't hurt to look back. Especially if it's someone else doing the looking.

Henceforth, here's three reactions to this year's inductions that we discovered this week, ranging from awesome to about as puzzling as "John From Cincinnati."

1) WAR blasts the induction of The Beastie Boys, courtesy of TMZ. That's right, this WAR. The WAR with this guy in it. Here's what founding member Howard Scott told the site:

"How could the Beastie Boys get in before us when they sampled 

War's music on their first album?! I'll eat their platinum records!" 

Tobolowsky's greatest role: Ned Ryerson in "Groundhog Day."

So basically, Scott is saying that WAR should get in because the Beastie Boys sampled them on "Slow Ride." (Even though "Slow Ride" is a better song, but whatever). Or because WAR came before the Beastie Boys. But that's like Stephen Tobolowsky complaining that he should have gotten an Oscar before Javier Bardem just because the erstwhile Ned Ryerson did his first movie in 1976, 31 years before "No Country For Old Men." Yeah, they're both actors, but Tobolowsky is one of "those guys" who usually fills goofy, off-kilter parts while Bardem takes on serious, often creepy roles.

2) While pontificating on a theoretical Guns 'N' Roses reunion that will never happen, singer Axl Rose essentially told the Los Angeles Times that if Duff and Slash would do it, that would count as a real-deal GNR reformation, and that guitarist Izzy Stradlin and original drummer Steven Adler are not necessary ingredients. Via www.antimusic.com:

Izzy not essential to GNR? Whaaat?

"Because, really, you can get guys from the ['Use Your Illusion'] thing, but the only thing that would make it would be Duff [McKagan] and Slash, really. It's nothing against Izzy [Stradlin] and it's nothing against Steven [Adler], or anything like that."
 

Uh, what? That's like Frank Black leaving Kim Deal out of a Pixies reunion and calling it legit. Or d*ckhead Sting reuniting The Police without d*ckhead drummer Stuart Copeland. Or R.E.M. calling themselves R.E.M. without drummer Bill Berry. Wait, uh ... 

3) Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones arbitrarily decided to come out and endorse Johnny Rotten's decision to lead the band into a snub of the Hall when they were inducted in 2006, and used it as bait to lure Contact Music into an interview in which he absolutely annihilated The Hall. Steve, if you're out there, we want you to write for Cleveland Does Not Rock. (side note: In the photo on the site you'll note that Contact Music apparently has confused this Steve Jones with the Sex Pistol Steve Jones. Oopsers). Anyway, Jones said this:

"Each year it (induction ceremony) gets lamer and lamer. A bunch of old f**ks kissing each other's a**, stroking each other. It's got nothing to do with rock 'n' roll whatsoever."

God love ya, Steve.

The voters: Who are you? Who who? Who who?

Allegedly, there are 500 voters who choose the Rock Hall inductees every year. There are no complaints about these people when the obvious artists get in — Run-D.M.C., Sex Pistols, U2 are among the more recent — but when there are no clear-cut hitmakers to choose from, it seems like this nebulous collection of ghouls falls flat on its face.

So who are they? One of our missions here at CDNR will be to find each and every one of these gods of the hall. Here's one:

Name: David Leaf
Occupation: Award-winning writer, director and producer 

"Did you say Hüsker Dü or Scooby Doo?"

Why he can be trusted to make the cool choices: He directed the rad doc "The U.S. vs. John Lennon" and "The Night James Brown Saved Boston"
Why he can't be trusted to make the cool choices: Based on his resume, he seems to only work with artists in the classic rock realm, including many projects on the Beatles and Beach Boys. Those are two amazing bands, but all his focus is on stuff from before 1980. He also wrote a book about the Bee Gees and did an A&E thing on Billy Joel.
Assessment: Leaf is an incredibly accomplished director and writer and, obviously, a music fan with (mostly) good taste. But do you think he knows who Paul Westerberg is? Do you think he could accurately judge Green Day beyond "American Idiot"? If he's still around will he have the stones to vote against Bush getting in? I say no. I say he's got to go.