Duran Duran frontman Simon Le Bon said his band was “definitely” planning to reunite with former guitarist Andy Taylor for their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction performance.
“I’ve already had a definite yes from Andy. He’s definitely up for it,” Le Bon revealed to Rolling Stone, adding that Warren Cuccurullo, who was an official member of the group from 1989 to 2001, would also likely be involved. “They are both extremely excited and very, very grateful and honored in the same way that Nick, Roger, John and I are as well. We’re talking about how we’re going to present ourselves on the night.”
Taylor joined the group in 1980 after responding to an advertisement in Melody Maker magazine. He was integral to the band’s success throughout the ‘80s, playing on the group’s first five studio albums — Duran Duran (1981), Rio (1982), Seven and the Ragged Tiger (1983), Arena (1984) and Notorious (1986) — leaving the band before the latter’s release.
In 2000, Taylor reunited with Duran Duran. They’d eventually release a new album, 2004’s Astronaut, before he departed once more in 2006.
“We’ve always maintained a decent relationship with these guys,” Le Bon explained, noting he’s remained in contact with Taylor and Cuccurullo over the years. “We didn’t have so-called ‘acrimonious splits.’ It was gentlemanly and it was understood. And pretty much mutual.”
While the singer said he was “over the moon” about Duran Duran’s induction, he admitted they were surprised by the honor. “I mean, we’re Duran Duran. We’re always the bridesmaid, never the bride. And we looked over the list of names and thought we didn’t really have a hope in hell.”
Le Bon also said it’ll be difficult figuring out which songs to perform during the ceremony.
“It will be a challenge,” the frontman noted. “We’ve got a 40-year career and we’ve got a new album out. It’s not like we made all of our records up until 20 years ago. And so it is going to be difficult. If we’ve got Warren and Andy both playing with us, we’ll want to do songs that they were involved with. That’s not difficult, is it?
We’ve got Andy on the first three albums, so you have songs like ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’ and ‘Rio’ and ‘Planet Earth.’ And Warren was on a very significant album of ours, among others. He was a very important part of The Wedding Album, which had ‘Ordinary World’ and ‘Come Undone’ on it. We’re not struggling for good songs, that’s for sure.”
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