Found this article on Fox News. Let's hope Sting doesn't read it, LOL KIM Clash Won't Play Rock Hall of Shame Dinner The bloated, self-important, self-invented Rock and Roll Hall of Fame holds its annual blowout a week from tonight. The group claims $10 million in assets and pays its director a six-figure salary. But it gives a pittance to indigent musicians and doesn't pay sidemen who play at its annual dinner/concert despite selling the rights to VH1 for millions. How anyone can take this thing seriously is beyond me. How former establishment-bashers Elvis Costello, the Clash and Sting can get up on the stage in the Waldorf ballroom and accept these awards is perplexing. Now it turns out the Clash, who recently lost founding member Joe Strummer to a heart attack, won't perform at all in any incarnation. Hallelujah! Bass player Paul Simonon told the wire services over the weekend: "I think it's better for the Clash to play in front of their public, rather than a seated and booted audience." Simonon also cited the $1,500 ticket to the Waldorf bash as a reason not to go. My faith in the Clash has been restored. Now if only Elvis Costello and Sting -- two men who pride themselves on being principled -- will come to their senses. The big question looming now for next Monday night: With the business in such turmoil, record sales down and Sony laying off hundreds in the next couple of weeks, will the record companies still come through with their $25,000 tables at the Waldorf for a decidedly uncharitable charity? This is an especially hot issue right now because the TJ Martell Foundation, the record business' real charitable arm, will be having its own fund-raiser June 2 (in honor of MTV's deserving Judy McGrath). As I've reported before, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation raises no money for the Rock Museum in Cleveland. The foundation also gives little to no funds to indigent musicians. And the only musicians who qualify for funds are ones who've already been inducted, according to the highly paid director, Suzan Evans Hochberg. That means that if Paul McCartney or the Eagles need their medical bills paid, they can come to the Hall of Fame Foundation. Michael Jackson, too, and at the rate he's spending money he may need them. I do wonder if the less billionaire-like inductees from past years have ever tried to get their hands on Evans' loot. The foundation keeps a $10 million war chest, by the way, with almost all of it invested in stocks, bonds and government securities. It keeps about $1.5 million on hand for emergencies. More tomorrow on who gets into the Hall of Shame, and where the money goes.