Despite an over 50-year career, Jethro Tull has received no love from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But frontman Ian Anderson doesn’t seem at all bothered by that.
“I think it’s quite wrong for us to be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame when so many great American acts are being ignored and will be for all time because I suppose they haven’t sold enough records or aren’t that popular to impress the founding fathers of the Rock Hall,” he tells USA Today.
Although many international bands have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, like The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, Anderson sees the Hall of Fame as “celebrating American music in an American institution.” He adds, “I don’t really feel Tull really qualifies in that sense.”
Anderson says he can “confidently predict” that his band won’t even get a nomination for the RRHOF, noting, “I have it on fairly good authority that the folks who make these decisions are not Tull fans and decided a long time ago that we would not be part of it.”
And that’s OK with Anderson because he doesn’t want to have to attend an induction.
“It’s best that they don’t ask me; then I don’t have that difficulty of sounding like a real old sourpuss and say I’m going to be washing my hair that day. Which really isn’t a plausible excuse any longer,” the bald Anderson says, although he insists he has “great respect for all of those artists who are part of it.”
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