Thom Yorke won't attend the Rock Hall induction ceremony, but he's happy about the Oscar nod

Thom Yorke at Kings Theatre
Thom Yorke at Kings Theatre in 2018 (more by Greg Cristman)

Radiohead are getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year after being nominated last year but not inducted. They had said last year that even if they were inducted, they weren’t interested in attending the ceremony anyway, and now Thom Yorke has told Variety that he definitely won’t be attending the induction ceremony, partially because he’ll be at the Paris Philharmonic instead. He said:

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame… we’ve always been very blasé about that stuff. So we don’t want to offend anyone. We just think that we just don’t quite understand it. We’ve had it explained to us, so it’s cool. But we don’t really understand it as English people. I think our problem is essentially that every awards ceremony in the UK stinks. We grew up with the Brits, which is like this sort of drunken car crash that you don’t want to get involved with. [Chuckles.] So, yeah, we don’t really know what to make of it.

And when asked point blank if he’s attending, he said:

I can’t. I know I can’t, because of these piano pieces that I’ve written. There’s the Paris Philharmonic, so I have to be there for that. [The piece he wrote for Katia and Marielle Labèque premieres at Philharmonie de Paris on April 7, nine days after the Hall of Fame induction.]

Thom Yorke was, however, very happy that his song “Suspirium” was shorlisted for the Oscar for Best Original Song:

The Oscar thing makes a bit more sense [than the Rock Hall], I guess, because I’ve had it explained to me a bit more. I mean, I hope it gets nominated. That would be great, because it was a year and a half in my life, and I worked bloody hard on it. So, you know, sometimes it’s nice to be recognized. Sometimes, if you understand what it means.

Thom also talked about his anticipated new solo album, which he previewed some music from on his tour last year:

Did you think of this tour you just did as touring behind “Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes” — which you did include as the tour title, even though that album came out four years ago — or was it more like touring behind your next album? Because you did about a half-dozen unreleased songs on the tour.

Basically, that started as an experiment, what I’m doing (on stage) with Nigel (Godrich) and (visual artist) Tarik (Barri), and then there’s a record that sort of formed out of it, which we keep trying to finish and get distracted from. We were hoping it would be finished before this tour started, but that didn’t happen, so we’ve got to finish it when we get back. So, as usual, I’m doing things the wrong way around, upside down, back to front.

But the new songs people just heard in concert should be on a record in 2019?

Yeah, they f—ing well should. They really, really better be. [Laughs.] Really soon. I’m desperate now. … I expected to have done it all (in the fall), and it just didn’t happen like that. I’m going to stop beating myself up about it. It will happen.

Stay tuned for that album, and read the rest of the interview here.