The Waldorf Astoria Hotel was the site for the the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony held on Monday, as the bands Black Sabbath, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blondie, and the Sex Pistols, and the late Miles Davis, were inducted.
Metallica had the honor of inducting headbangers Black Sabbath, and paid tribute to them when they performed the Sabbath songs "Iron Man" and "Hole In The Sky." "If we'd have played everyone would have been fucking dead at the end, the volume we play at," joked Ozzy Osbourne.
"Hopefully our induction tonight will add to the validation, and hard rock and heavy metal will have an enduring and everlasting place in rock history," said Bill Ward.
Blondie had only half the band perform. The band's current lineup, led by Deborah Harry, sang "Call Me," "Rapture" and "Heart Of Glass", but when original members Frank Infante and Nigel Harrison said they wanted to join in, they were turned down. "They wrote themselves out of the band's history as far as I'm concerned," guitarist Chris Stein said. (Infante and Harrison sued the band over the ownership of the Blondie name.) "I would have been really happy to support those guys if they hadn't attacked us."
Lynyrd Skynyrd also was on hand for their induction. Following an speech by Kid Rock, the band saluted late members Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines, who died in a 1977 plane crash, as well as deceased bassist Leon Wilkeson and guitarist Allen Collins.
The Sex Pistols were still inducted even though they didn't want to be, and Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner read the snarling letter the band had faxed to the Hall of Fame, in which they comparing the Hall to "urine in wine."
