Rock Hall President Responds to Steve Miller’s Blistering Comments
Most artists are pretty happy moments after their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but when Steve Miller came into the press room following his speech and performance, he was fuming with anger. He ripped the organization to shreds while addressing the press, and continued with his anger when speaking with Rolling Stone. We sat down with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame President and CEO Joel Peresman to hear his side of the story.
Prior to the evening of the ceremony, did you know that Steve Miller was upset?
No. We really had no issues with Steve. There were some things they brought up earlier about wanting his band to come, which we took care of. His band had a table and they were able to sit at and enjoy the show before and after their performance. I know there were some issues going back and forth about the standard TV release, which we do with every act every year and it never seems to be a problem. There’s always that little back and forth you get leading into a show.
I want to go through the things he said backstage. He said, “When they told me I was inducted, they said, ‘You have two tickets – one for your wife and one for yourself. Want another one? It’s $10,000 – sorry that’s the way it goes.’ What about my band? What about their wives? They make this so unpleasant.”
Steve Miller’s band wasn’t being inducted this year. Steve Miller was inducted. We unquestionably took care of his band and his band was given a table they were able to sit at before and after the performance. I’m really surprised he goes down that path being that he’s on the board of other cultural institutions, and he should have an understanding of how cultural institutions work. They do fundraisers and when you do fundraisers, you have rules in order to actually make money. You don’t just give away tickets for free.
He said, “They need to respect the artists they say they’re honoring, which they don’t. I don’t have any of my paperwork signed. I have no licensing agreements with these people. They’re trying to steal footage. They’re trying to make me indemnify them.”
I really don’t know what Steve is referring to on that. For 30 years when we’ve inducted artists, we create clip packages to show images of them as they come up to the accept the award. Whether Steve was being tough on giving us rights on that stuff or whether he wanted approval, I’m not really sure what he’s referring to. Our legal team and rights team reaches out to all the inductees. Steve seems to be the only release that wasn’t signed before the performance.