Daily Pulse

Rock Hall Rebels

Even though The Sex Pistols punked the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and were nowhere near the induction ceremony, the show still had an uncomfortable moment – notably during Blondie‘s time at the podium.

The March 13th ceremony at New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria hotel inducted the Pistols, Blondie, Black Sabbath, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Miles Davis into the museum. Also inducted were Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss for founding A&M Records.

Ozzy Osbourne took part in accepting Sabbath’s trophies and was charming despite years of saying he wanted his band to be taken off of the voting list for induction.

Blondie, too, was professional, but had an awkward moment when they went onstage to accept their award. When the band re-formed in 1999, three members were not invited along for the ride – Frank Infante, Nigel Harrison and Gary Valentine. Infante and Harrison unsuccessfully sued over rights to the Blondie name. It was the second time Infante sued the band, the first time in 1982.

Prior to the ceremony, Blondie singer Deborah Harry was asked if the two men would be invited to play onstage for old time’s sake.

“Absolutely not,” Harry said. “There was no excuse for them suing us. That ended it.”

All of the original members stood uncomfortably on the stage before Infante pleaded with Harry to let the outcasts perform with Blondie one more time.

“Debbie, are we allowed?” he asked.

She curtly refused and Infante groaned loudly before walking off the stage.

“They wrote themselves out of the band history, as far as I’m concerned,” guitarist Chris Stein said backstage. “They should have a little bit of honor. This is supposed to be rock ‘n’ roll. This is supposed to be friendly. This is like going through the trenches together.”

Osbourne was gracious in accepting the induction on behalf of Sabbath. The band waited 10 years for their entrance and during that time, Osbourne asked that Sabbath no longer be considered. He said during the ceremony it was a defense mechanism to keep his feelings from getting hurt each year.

The Pistols shunned the Hall of Fame with a scrawled note that was posted all over the Internet. It cited that they would have to pay thousands of dollars for their table at the event and that the voters were music industry execs. Johnny Rotten and the gang compared the Hall to “urine in wine” and said no thanks.

Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner read the letter in its entirety and invited the band to pick up their trophies in Cleveland.

“If they want to smash them into bits, they can do that too,” Wenner said.

Show highlights are expected to air on VH1 March 21st.

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