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Moody Blues Co-founder Denny Laine 'Very Pleased' to be Added to Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Roster
Denny Laine performs at Eddie's Attic on April 20, 2015 in Decatur, Ga.
Denny Laine says that not being included in the initial The Moody Blues roster for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class of 2018 "didn't
bother me much." But he's certainly happy that he's been added and will
be part of the group's entry into the shrine on April 14 in Cleveland.
"I
thought (the rest of the band) deserved it because of the amount of
work and the popularity, and I thought that's the way it goes," Laine --
who co-founded the Moodys during 1964 in Birmingham, England, but left
after the group's 1965 debut album and the hit "Go Now" -- tells Billboard.
"I have to say, I'm a big fan of their stuff. Obviously, I'm very
pleased I'm going to be in there. It's an honor. I think I'm at least a
little part of their story, so I feel very content, really, that it's
all come full circle now."
Laine was added to the induction
roster thanks to lobbying by Rock Hall voting committee members,
including Little Steven Van Zandt, Peter Asher and Cousin Brucie Morrow.
Van Zandt tweeted Dec. 16 that Laine's "inadvertent ommission is being
corrected on the Rock Hall website as we speak." And Laine says Asher
told him that "he wouldn't even vote for the Moody Blues unless I was in
it."
"That was kind of the most rewarding part of the thing, I
think: I had friends from the top who pushed for me to get back in,"
Laine notes.
Laine says he's received congratulations from fellow founding members
Mike Pinder and Ray Thomas, though nothing has been determined about
whether he'll perform in any way at the induction ceremony. Pinder,
according to Laine, recruited him away from his own band in Birmingham,
though the other Moodys were not as interested in Laine's push to move
to London to be closer to the British music industry of the mid-'60s.
And even though he left before the landmark Days of Future Passed,
Laine notes that he "was part of that whole early Moody Blues
transitioning from a sort of R&B/blues band to being more
progressive. We had this kind of hippie-dippy type of vibe going in
those days, and they just developed it further. But if it hadn't been
for Mike and Ray talking me into getting into their band, I could've
been stuck in Birmingham and not done anything, so I'm grateful for
that."
Laine, of course, is best known for his tenure in Wings as the only member other than Paul and Linda McCartney to be in the group from start to finish. He doesn't anticipate that group getting its own Rock Hall nod, however.
"It was not a band, really. It was Paul McCartney and a backing band -- that's the truth of the matter," Laine says. "We weren't a band like The Beatles, The Stones, The Moody Blues. So I wouldn't see Wings as a band that would go into the Hall of Fame, to be honest."
These days, the New Jersey-based Laine is a solo act, playing songs
from his entire past live as well as recording. He recently released the
single "Meant to Be" / "Over the Horizon," and he has a new album in
the can as well.
"That's kind of to show people I'm still doing
something now, and I'm not just living in the past," Laine says.
"Tribute bands have kind of taken over the market, and I don't want to
come across as being that. I want to come across as being a current
artist, still, who does the songs but my way rather than copy them note
for note. So it's kind of to show I'm doing something new as well as the
old stuff."
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