DMC of Run-DMC has confirmed that the group will not be performing this weekend as they are inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
“For me, I tell people, ‘Do you want to see me and Run running around without Jay?’ ” DMC said to MTV News “They tell me I could get Grandmaster Flash [to fill in]. But I can get any DJ in the world if I want. It wouldn’t be right. I can’t replace my drummer.”
There will be a video tribute to the group put together by the Rock Hall, although DMC is focusing on what he’ll say when he gets in front of the podium.
“They said, ‘You have all the time in the world. We don’t want you to
be too long, but we don’t want you to be too short,’ ” he said,
laughing. “Then they said, ‘You should write something.’ I said I
wasn’t gonna write something; I was gonna freestyle it. But then they
scared me again with [clears voice], ‘Make sure you get it right, because you only get to do this once.’ “
DMC enters the Rock Hall of Fame will Metallica and Bobby Womack.
“For me, personally, I just love what gods are gonna be in the
room,” said DMC. “I’m a rock-and-roll fan, from Led Zeppelin to Bob
Dylan to Jimi Hendrix.
“And Metallica? Oh my God,” he added. “I grew up as a kid
looking up to Bobby Womack. Do you know how big he was? He was so far
from me as a super superstar, because my mother and father followed
him. That’s crazy. Now I’m thinking about it, and it’s just crazy.”
LL Cool J, whom Run-DMC took with them on his first tour experience, said that he would have liked to see group perform, though he respects their decision.
“When I think about them performing — and I would never encourage them
to do something that they wouldn’t do — but I really wish they would
consider getting video footage of Jay cutting and figure out a way to
sync that up so that they could perform to it,” said LL. “Kind
of like the way Natalie Cole did it with her father. I really wish they
would consider that. If I was Run, I would. I think it would be epic.
That would be big.”
Regardless, says co-founder of Def Jam and brother to Reverend Run, Russel Simmons, “They may have looked like the Blues Brothers to rock-and-roll guys,
but that was some real Brooklyn shit right there [the way they dressed
and presented themselves],” he said “That’s some Hollis,
Queens, stuff. They were paying homage to where the music was coming
from [the streets]. They drew the line in the sand. They weren’t
crossing over; they made people come to them. And with that, they
really inspired the whole community. They did a lot to contribute to
the sentiment of authenticity, which ultimately became the earmark of
the culture as a whole.“
The group will be inducted tomorrow (April 4) by rapper and longtime fan Eminem.