Green Day To Induct Guns N' Roses Into Rock Hall

It is still unclear if GNR singer Axl Rose will show up to the April 14 event.
By Gil Kaufman

Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day

It takes a punk to know a punk. And though they may appear to be rebels of a different stripe, down deep Green Day and Guns N' Roses are made of the same spiked collar DNA. That's why it makes perfect sense that the Berkeley, California-bred three-chord trio has been tapped to induct the ultimate Hollywood metal gods into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next week.

According to Rolling Stone, Green day will deliver the induction speech for GNR during the April 14 induction ceremony
 in Cleveland. And while Billy Joe Armstrong and the boys are sure to heap praise on Guns for the pioneering mind-meld of glam, metal and punk on the band's titanic 1987 debut, Appetite for Destruction, the million dollar question remains which members of the famously splintered band will attend?

Former members Slash, Duff McKagan, Steven Adler, Matt Sorum and only remaining early period member, keyboardist Dizzy Reed have said they may attend, but singer (and lone original member) Axl Rose and former guitarist Izzy Stradlin have not confirmed their plans yet. RS indicated that if the notoriously mercurial Rose doesn't show it is unlikely that the band will perform and it's not clear if Green Day would play in their stead.

Guns have not performed with Adler since 1990 and Slash hasn't shared a stage with Rose since he split the group in 1993. Rose has been touring for much of the past decade with a new lineup of the band.

"Everyone has been asking me what's going to happen [at the Hall of Fame]," Slash recently told the magazine. "And they know as much as I do. I feel you're totally obligated to be present and I would love to f---ing play, but it's just something that's not gonna happen for whatever reason."

The famously top-hatted guitarist said relations between him and Rose remain, well, chilly. "He hates my guts," Slash said. "It's over a lot of different stuff; I don't even know. There's just no communication between us. I talk to Duff and Steven, but when it comes to old Guns N' Roses, there really isn't anybody that makes decisions."

Whatever happens, Green Day will be in good company at the star-studded Rock Hall of Fame affair
. The Beastie Boys will be inducted by hip-hop icon and Public Enemy frontman Chuck D., while comedian Chris Rock will do the honors for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

In addition, "Sopranos" star and E Street Band member "Little" Steven Van Zandt will handle the duties for the Small Faces/The Faces, John Mellencamp will handle psychedelic crooner Donovan, Bette Midler will induct late pop singer/songwriter Laura Nyro and ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill will speak on behalf of blues guitar icon Freddie King.

Also on tap are singer/songwriter Carole King, who will speak on behalf of non-performer producer Don Kirshner, the Band's Robbie Robertson, who will talk about producers/engineers Cosimo Matassa, Tom Dowd and Glyn Johns and R&B legend Smokey Robinson, who will induct the sidemen in the Blue Caps, the Comets, the Crickets, the Famous Flames, the Midnighters and his own backing band, the Miracles. The induction ceremony will be televised on HBO on May 5 at 9 p.m.

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