Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer discussed being the youngest member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Pearl Jam’s former drummers being snubbed for induction in April in a recent Montreal radio interview.
“The Cure didn’t make it in the year I did. But I didn’t even think of it, because there’s no rational justification for certain people not being in, and me being in. You’ll grow a tail and chase it all your life before you come up with any sensible answers about that kind of stuff.”
The interviewer then mentioned former Pearl Jam drummers not being inducted in April.
“Of course, Jack Irons. That’s a whole long conversation, and I think it’s ridiculous. I mean, there were rules that may have been invented to deal with the Chili Peppers induction that didn’t now apply a couple years later with Pearl Jam, but if they had applied would have seen Jack enter twice, which I thought was [funny]. Basically the Hall of Fame, it’s a museum basically. I don’t know what a ‘hall of fame’ means. The reason I’m in there is a technicality, it’s a loophole, it’s a weird thing.”
“It really means nothing. If I was to go around believing that I did anything worthy of being in a Hall of Fame, then I really worry. My parents have a little trophy on their mantle piece, but it’s more of a conversational piece than anything. I’m grateful, but my standard answer is every day I’m honored to be Anthony, Flea, and Chad’s friend. That’s what allows me to be in this band, that’s what allows this band to work. Timing is what it is, their career and my age making me the youngest person in there, all those things are secondary. The real honor and the real accomplishment is being their friend.”
