This year the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will induct a number of “backing bands,” including Buddy Holly’s Crickets, James Brown’s Famous Flames, Smokey Robinson’s Miracles and Bill Haley’s Comets. In the coming years, it’s highly probable that Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band will finally get their due.
Why haven’t they been inducted by now? Because their name hadn’t been on an album cover until Live 1975-1985, credited to Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, was released in 1986. So, they weren’t inducted along with their frontman in 1999. In contrast, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers were the credited artist on all of Petty’s albums until he made his first solo record, Full Moon Fever, in 1989.
E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren has little use for the rules of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as he recently told CBS Local. And while he’s not bothered by the snub, many of his bandmates are.
In the above clip, Nils is referring to the Rolling Stones’ induction. Originally, the Rock Hall wasn’t going to include Ron Wood with the rest of the band, before changing positions on the issue. Oddly enough, Wood will be inducted for the second time at this year’s ceremony, as a member of the Faces.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony takes place Saturday (April 14) in Cleveland, and airs on HBO on May 5. Lofgren is currently on tour with Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, and also has a new solo album out, titled Old School.
–Brian Ives, CBS Local
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