Denny Laine On The Odds Of Wings Being Inducted Into The Rock Hall
Now that he’s going into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Moody Blues, some attention turns to Denny Laine‘s other band — Wings.
Laine co-founded the group with a post-Beatles Paul McCartney during 1971 and is the only member besides McCartney and his wife, Linda, to be part of the group for its entire decade-long run, which included seven studio albums and hits such as “My Love,” “Band On The Run,” “Jet,” “Silly Love Songs,” “Mull Of Kintyre” and more.
But thought it was positioned as a band, Laine tells us that McCartney’s presence loomed too large for Wings to ever be considered for the Rock Hall itself:
“I heard that before, when Paul was inducted as an individual, that was including the Wings era — in other words, Wings was not, as such, a band…It was not a band, really. It was Paul McCartney and the backing band…That’s the truth of the matter, even though we were really close as friends at the time we weren’t a band like the Beatles, the Stones, the Moody Blues. We were just his backing group, really…I wouldn’t see that as a band that would go into the Hall of Fame, to be honest.”
Laine will be inducted as a co-founder of the Moodys, though he was with the band for just one album. The ceremony takes place on April 14 in Cleveland.
Gary Graff is an award-winning music journalist who not only covers music but has written books on Bob Seger, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.
