Guns N' Roses and the Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame

So, it's official... Guns N' Roses will be inducted into the Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame next April. As soon as I heard the news, I sent three tweets to the band as well as Slash and Duff. One, a sincere congratulations for an honour that's well deserved. One a jokey reminder for someone to let Izzy know (I can actually see him not having any idea about it until it's already happened otherwise), and the other a plea to "please please PLEASE DON'T fuck it up".

Some people may confuse that plea for a plea for a reunion of some kind, but it's not. I love the current line-up of Guns N' Roses and 'Chinese Democracy', and think that what Slash and Duff have been doing on their own for the last few years is some of the best music they've ever recorded. I don't want to see any of these to come to an end because they've decided they want to tour together again. In fact, I'm pretty sure that if there is a reunion, whatever those guys had together would already be long gone.

No... I just want them all to be civil with each other for just one night. And by all, I mean the line-up that created 'Appetite For Destruction', as well as Matt Sorum, Gilby Clarke and the current line-up together! Maybe there should be some room for Buckethead, Brain and Robin Finck, too. If they want to throw people a bone by having the original guys go up and perform, that'd be amazing, too, as a one-off. But that would just be a bonus... to have all of them there together would be the main goal. I'm really hoping that's not too much to ask for.

Of course, the Hall itself will have to do its part, too. In my opinion, if they want to avoid repeating the shambles with Van Halen, the worst thing they could do is tell Axl that the current line-up aren't going to be included. He's really fired up and proud of the band he has now, and has spent the last 10 years trying to convince the world to embrace the present, and let go of the past. The success of this has been mixed, but the current US tour appears to finally be doing this. If the HOF refuses to acknowledge them, that's a sure-fire way to turn the ceremony into an embarrassing drama. On top of this (and this next statement may piss people off), I think a large reason for the induction is the current line-up. Not because of their contribution to music, exactly, but because 'Chinese Democracy' and the last ten years of touring have kept Guns N' Roses an ongoing concern, with people always talking about what Axl is up to, etc. etc. They didn't give the world (or indeed the Hall Of Fame) a chance to forget about them. Contrary to popular belief, Axl has never tried to deny credit where it is due, even to people he doesn't like, so I'm pretty sure he'll accept that the original line-up needs to be included.

I know that in the long run, the Hall Of Fame doesn't matter - its relevance has repeatedly been called into question in recent years. But it's still a huge honour that 25 years after 'Appetite For Destruction' the band are still considered relevant enough to be included in such an exclusive club. People complain about the bands that have never been inducted, but a lot of those bands haven't made the required and sustained impact on music that their fans believe them to have, and it's the exclusivity of the thing that makes it so special. It's not something that will make any difference to the world, but it's a positive thing, people!

And wouldn't be nice if we could still think of it as a positive thing come April?