When the 2019 nominees were announced in October, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame posted on their website the names of each nominated group who would be inducted. For Roxy Music, they listed eight members:

In Rolling Stone’s article announcing the nominees, reporter Andy Greene wrote that only six members of Roxy Music were included by the Rock Hall, and John Gustafson and Graham Simpson were not among them:

The classic Roxy Music lineup of Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno, Andy Mackay, Phil Manzanera, Eddie Jobson and Paul Thompson made the cut, though none of their many bassists did.

After the inductees were announced in December, John Gustafson’s contributions to the band were still mentioned in the Rock Hall’s biography, but his name disappeared from the inducted members listing:

A month later, Andy Greene spoke with Andy Mackay about the inducted lineup:

RS: They’re taking in Brian Eno, Bryan Ferry, Eddie Jobson, you, Phil Manzanera, Graham Simpson and Paul Thompson. Did they get that right? Did they miss anybody?

Mackay: It’s difficult, isn’t it? Over the band’s career there were many different people. For a period, we worked with American session musicians on a few records. By and large, the four of us there at the beginning were there at the end. That’s probably what counts. And Eddie Jobson obviously did play on three records in the middle of the band’s career. With bass players, it is hard to say who is the definitive bass player. The guy who played on “Love Is the Drug,” John Gustafson, died a few years ago. He was a fantastic player who had been in a Liverpool band before the Beatles. He was a great player that did a lot of session work in London.

The official Rock Hall program doesn’t specifically list which members were inducted, but the front and back covers illustrate each inductee. There are only seven yellow circles for Roxy Music, and Gustafson is not one of them.

The Rock Hall already changed course with this class when they decided to include The Cure’s current guitarist, Reeves Gabrels, but it’s not so clear why Gustafson was removed from the Roxy Music lineup. Did the Rock Hall change its mind? Was there input from the band?

The Rock Hall started announcing the band lineups with the nominations each year in an effort to avoid these types of controversies, but it’s clear they still have no problem making things up as they go along.

Many people are wondering why was John Gustafson dropped from your original list of eight Roxy Music band members to be inducted after the details were displayed on the HOF website during the weeks before the ceremony? 🙄

— Roxy (@Roxysiren) April 7, 2019

For the record, we had been listing Gustafson as an inductee since December, but based on the above information, he has now joined the list of Snubbed Members.

Big thanks to Joe Kwaczala, host of our favorite podcast, for bringing this to our attention.