Gilby Clarke Felt Bad About Rock Hall Snub, Then Stopped Caring
Former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke said he was initially upset at being left out of the band’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction – but quickly realized he didn’t care at all.
Now he believes there’s “no validity” in the process and that organizers have “gotten it wrong every time.”
Clarke took part in the ceremony surrounding the 2012 event, but wasn’t one of the band members actually inducted. The process had already been marred by Axl Rose’s announcement that he wouldn’t attend, having told the Rock Hall in an open letter that he found himself in a “'damned if I do, damned if I don’t’ scenario all the way around.”
“I didn't even know about it until it was a done deal," Clarke told Appetite for Distortion. “Matt [Sorum] had inside information, so he kind of got in there and got himself included, which, obviously, included Dizzy [Reed] too. By the time it got to me, it was a done deal. And I didn't really care.”
Nevertheless, he said he “got burned” in the incident. “Slash and I had a conversation about it," Clarke recalled. "I said, ‘Look, when you think of Guns N’ Roses, you think of the five guys, and so do I. That's what it should be. But if you're gonna induct Dizzy and Matt, now I feel left out.’ … But who fucking cares who gets in? It's not like anybody gets a dollar for it or whatever.”
Clarke added that the Rock Hall has "pretty much proven that they've gotten it wrong every time. I felt bad in the beginning when I found out Matt and Dizzy got inducted and I didn't. … But then I heard the Chili Peppers got inducted, but they didn't induct Dave Navarro ... [who] played on some million-selling records. And then they inducted the Grateful Dead and inducted, like, 100 people. And when those things happen, then it puts it in perspective.”
He argued that it didn’t make any difference to his career: “It's not like suddenly 100 more people are gonna come to the show," he said. "It literally is a line somebody will say when I go do a TV show: ‘Gilby Clarke, Rock and Roll Hall … .’ I don't think there's any real validity in it. … It’s not a big deal to me, and it shouldn't be to everybody else.”