In a message dated 3/12/2003 1:47:29 PM Eastern Standard Time, F.Berthelot@Ramsa.com writes:
Apparently, Sting refused to participate in the final tribute to The Clash. One could speculate that such a tribute would take away from the importance of The Police's induction, and Sting might have wanted to keep the focus on The Police. Or maybe Sting doesn't like The Clash?! I don't know why they didn't just perform it sans Sting. The Edge left the room during The Police's set, which I found insulting (after all, U2 owes a bit to The Police for disbanding...)
If this is true it's not good. Strummer just DIED for crying out loud. There are many similarities between The Police and The Clash. Some would call them "rivals" to a degree. I recall many many years ago an old interview with Sting where he said about The Clash: "I'm not going to get upset because Joe Strummer refuses to talk to me back stage" Apparently Joe snubbed him. Seems like a long time to hold a grudge. Silly to speculate I guess, but if true, Sting just opened the door to some major abuse from all the punks who have had Sting on the Shit List for quite some time. This would have been a good opportunity to put that all to rest. Can't we all just get along Sting? This all still seems a bit odd, so I'll wait to hear more.