Next year the ceremony will be in Cleveland, so that’s nice. And supposedly will return every three years, so that softens the blow. If anyone wants to read our blow by blow from the rock hall, go here:

http://blog.cleveland.com/rockhall/

It really was fun, I just can’t stand Jann Wenner, he so full of it.

And all those 80s New Wavers, they gave us something to listen to, I’d go so far as to say it was our “emo.”

I don’t really know what qualifies as “influential” these days — does it mean they changed the sound of the industry? does it mean that they laid the groundwork for later artists giving them the ability to be successful? Or does it simply mean that they knew how to “play the game” and sucked up to the right people?

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

Even band’s guitarist knows rock hall pairing is odd

By BRIAN McCOLLUM
FREE PRESS MUSIC WRITER

Don’t be too worried, Stooges fans: They haven’t sold out to the other side.

So proclaims guitarist Ron Asheton, who tonight will join band mates Iggy Pop, Scott Asheton and Steve MacKay as the Stooges play a pair of Madonna songs — “Ray of Light” and “Burning Up” — during the latter’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Asheton was reacting to online reports that have described the band’s scheduled performance as a “tribute” to the dance-pop star, whose music is a far cry from the Stooges’ own gritty, primal Detroit rock.

“The Stooges represent everything that’s against what she is,” Asheton told the Free Press from his New York hotel this afternoon. “I don’t wish her ill. I don’t hate her or anything. But I’d never even heard of these songs until I had to listen to a tape and figure out what’s going on with them.”

In reality, Asheton says, Madonna asked the Stooges to perform as an act of protest: The group, widely considered a linchpin of early punk, has yet to be inducted by the rock hall, despite six appearances on the nomination ballot. By inviting the group on stage, she sends a message, says Asheton.

Last year’s rock hall ceremony featured a similar demonstration, when the night’s inductees performed the Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” during a jam session finale.

“Basically she was upset that we’ve been nominated so many times and never made it, so she asked us to play in protest. And it was under those auspices that I thought we were doing it,” Asheton said. “At first I went, ‘Whaaat?’ Then Iggy said, ‘Why don’t you think about it?’”