The Hollies at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Graham Nash at the Hall of Fame induction. Terry Sylvester is behind him on the right.

When the Hollies' Allan Clarke told his father he planned on becoming a musician, his father advised him to save his money because rock bands don't last too long. Almost 50 years later, Clarke has proved him wrong.

"Well, Dad, I'm being inducted into a museum," Clarke said last night. "How's that for longevity?"

The Hollies, who have been together longer than any other British Invasion band, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a star-studded awards ceremony at New York's Waldorf Astora hotel. They joined four other performers and groups chosen this year by 600 music industry professionals.

“We started out in the ’60s — now we’re in our 60s,” said Terry Sylvester, who replaced Graham Nash. And Nash was also on hand, tongue in cheek, thanking his colleagues for having "the audacity, the gall" to have three No. 1 hits after he left the band in 1968: "The Air That I Breathe," "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" and "Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)."

The Hollies were inducted by Steve Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen's guitarist, who paid tribute to The Hollies and the spirit of rock and roll. He said Clarke and Nash's "exquisite English harmonies were shared only by the Beatles."

Van Zandt also took a moment to half-jokingly describe the music business in the 21st century as “artistically, financially and spiritually bankrupt.”

Inducted along with the Hollies were Genesis, Iggy and the Stooges, Jimmy Cliff and Abba.

Much more on the Hollies here.

A few days ago, on a visit to the Hall of Fame museum in Cleveland, Sylvester talked about the induction. Here's the video:

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