Next year, Radiohead will be eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the first time, an institutional accolade the band have given exactly zero thought to. In an outtake from Rolling Stone’s bottomless well of recent Radiohead interviews, the band greets the idea of being inducted with the exact measure of unamusement expected of five Brits. “I’d rather be sitting at home in front of the fire or going to a gig,†Ed O’Brien says, shrugging off anything to do with the Rock Hall. Most of his bandmates feel the same and find the annual self-aggrandizing too American for their taste. “Maybe it’s a cultural thing that I really don’t understand. I mean, from the outside it looks like … it’s quite a self-regarding profession anyway,†Jonny Greenwood says. “And anything that heightens that just makes me feel even more uncomfortable.†O’Brien continues: “I think it might be a quintessential American thing. Brits are not very good at slapping ourselves on the back. It seems very show-biz and I’m not very show-biz. We haven’t been asked.â€
Thom Yorke seems to want to add his two cents, but cuts himself off: “It wouldn’t be the first place … don’t ask me things like that. I always put my foot in my mouth.†(To be fair, he’s already said too much.) Meanwhile, Phil Selway’s just shocked Radiohead are already of HOF age — “Blimey. Have we got to that point?†— but Colin Greenwood’s the lone Radiohead member who’d be happy to be there simply for its historical significance. He jokes, “I don’t know if everyone else will go though. It might be me just doing bass versions of everything like, ‘Come on, you know this one!’ I’d have to play the bass part to ‘Creep’ five times.â€