Steel Notes Magazine
Spring 2017 going on , we go in and it kind of recharges our creative batteries and we come home and not have as many distractions and put it to good use .
Alexxis : Absolutely it does ! Now going back to the later years , we ’ re talking about in 2011 you received The Revolver Golden God Award and the band was also inducted to The Rock and Rock Hall of Fame , which is a great thing .
Dennis : Yes , absolutely . I mean we got a call or an email from Shep and he wanted to have a conference call so it was Neal , Alice , Michael , Shep and I on the phone and he said “ well you ’ ve been nominated ”. We were like oh ? We were gun shy about this because it seemed like it was 14 years that we weren ’ t nominated after we were eligible and there were those years it seemed every once in a while they would say you ’ re going to be nominated and then we wouldn ’ t be . So [ Laughter ] we were kind of like oh yeah , right . But this time it turned out to be true , we were nominated and you know after that phone call Neal and I were like wow I wonder if they ’ re nominating Alice as a solo entertainer or the group ? And we thought well it could go either way . Anyway it turned out it was the group was nominated and then Alice had invited us to The Christmas Pudding Show that he does with The Solid Rock Foundation in Phoenix , Arizona every Christmas .
Alexxis : That was awesome !
Dennis : So we were out there and we were rehearsing Alice , Michael , Neal and I . Steve Hunter was sitting in on guitar and Alice ’ s roadie comes in right in the middle of the song and says , “ Stop playing .” [ Laughter ] He said “ You guys are in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame .!” And so Neal slammed his drum stick down on the drumhead and it went flying into the air . [ Laughter ] Alexxis : I guess Neal was in disbelief it was really happening !
Dennis : They said , “ Ok well you ’ re going to have to stop rehearsing because we got a million interviews for all of you from all across the country .”
Alexxis : Wow .
Dennis : So they got the phone set up in all these different conference rooms and I would go in and talk to Detroit , then Michael would come in and talk to that guy while I ’ m over here talking to the guy from Seattle and stuff like that . [ Laughter ]
Alexxis : Oh it must ’ ve been crazy .
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Dennis : Yeah , it was exciting . And that night when we came out on stage , where we were , this curtain was still closed and it was dark and we were all ready to play and could hear Bob Ezrin talking to the crowd , which was at the Dodge Theater with about 8,000 people and Bob gave this very heartwarming introduction announcing to the crowd that probably hadn ’ t heard this that we were inducted in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . Oh man ! What a great reception ! That curtain opened and I felt like I was on top of the world .
Alexxis : I bet that must have been an amazing moment !
Dennis : So now we have to decide what songs we have to do for the rock and roll , you know everybody in the world my communications was I was couldn ' t do anything because I had a million emails and a million messages , my phone was ringing off the hook it was crazy ! [ Laughter ] And I ’ m not even Alice you know ?
Alexxis : It must have been a very busy time !
Dennis : Everybody in the world is telling us what songs we should play and all that , so we had some rehearsals with Bob Ezrin and the band in Yonkers , New York and we decided what songs we wanted to play and some other people had different ideas of what songs we should play . We wanted to play ‘ Under My Wheels , Shep was there , Bob Ezrin was there and some various people and Neal and I said “ You know what , let ’ s play both versions of the set . We ’ ll play the version with ‘ Under My Wheels ’ we ’ ll play whatever the other song they wanted us to do and then we ’ ll just compare them . Well Neal and I kicked ass on ‘ Under My Wheels ’ and they said “ Ok we ’ re doing that !”
Dennis : But anyway it didn ’ t really matter what songs you did , you walked out at the ceremony . Before that Shep was thinking about what everyone should wear and I said , “ I think we all should wear white tuxedos with blood splattered all over them .” And Shep said “ No , no , no , we can ’ t do that .” Well Alice ended up doing a white shirt with the blood .
Alexxis : Yes , I remember seeing that picture , he had the boa around his neck and you were standing up at the podium , right , and that was a big snake !
Dennis : That wasn ’ t the regular snake that was an albino boa I believe or maybe a python . But so now we ’ re standing on stage , we ’ re about ready to start playing . They wanted us to accept our awards