Steve Miller Still Sorting Out ‘Murky’ Rock Hall Contract for HBO Broadcast
Steve Miller's induction was the talk of this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, but there's still no guarantee his performance will make it to HBO's broadcast later this month.
As Miller recently told the San Diego Union-Tribune, he's still going back and forth with the Hall over the terms of their contract for rebroadcast rights. "We’re still negotiating. We’re demanding they clean up their paperwork – their paperwork is just ridiculous," he claimed. "When they tell you that you’ve been nominated, they don’t give you any information. It’s ‘We’ll let you know how you do.’ They are a day late and a dollar short."
Miller's unhappiness with the release forms is just a small part of the bad blood between the rock vet and the Rock Hall that erupted in the press room after the ceremony. He aired a long list of grievances the night of the event and has continued to elaborate in the days following his induction, ultimately provoking a response from the Hall.
None of which seems to bode well for the chances of getting paperwork signed for the induction ceremony's HBO broadcast on April 30. According to Miller, it would be easy to get a better contract together, if the Rock Hall would only try. "They’re talking about having you sign releases and them controlling other people’s art; it’s as bad as any contract I’ve seen in 50 years," he said. "I’ve spent three months with them negotiating to clean it up and share it with everybody else inducted this year. They pitted everybody against everybody else, and it’s all unnecessary. God, I could straighten it all out in a day."
There's still time to get the issues fixed, but at the moment, Miller doesn't sound like he's willing to budge. "Everything in the contract is hard to understand and murky, and the Rock Hall have all these rights and the artists don’t have any, and you have to indemnify them," he said. "I don’t do contracts like that, whether it’s with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Kennedy Center, or anyone else."
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