Dire Straits bassist unsure if the band will reunite for Hall of Fame induction

Dire Straits co-founder John Illsley is unsure if the band will regroup for its Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction next year (18).
The Money For Nothing hitmakers will join the Class of 2018 along with The Cars, the Moody Blues, Bon Jovi, and Nina Simone in April, but the bass player can’t be certain he and his former bandmates will perform at the gala.
Illsley, who along with Mark Knopfler was the only permanent member of the group from the first album in 1977 to the final concert in 1992, last performed with Mark at his wedding in 1999.
Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine after news of the band’s induction broke on Wednesday (13Dec17), Illsley confessed he had “absolutely no idea” if there would be a reunion at the induction ceremony.
“It would be probably a little bit difficult for me to say how that would work,” he says. “We’d have to think about that and see how we do this thing. I couldn’t say right now…”
“I think we’ll just have to see how that’s going to work. We’re talking about a long time. David (Knopfler) left the band in 1980. That’s 37 years ago. Pick (Withers) left in 1983. We’re talking 34 years ago. It’s quite a long time. There’s a lot of water under the bridge, so to speak… A lot of time has passed.
“That’s something Mark and I need to talk about…”
John insists he and Knopfler are still on good terms and speak often at times.
“I think that Mark and I had an understanding and a mutual respect and we felt that we’d created the thing in the first place. I think in all the time that I’ve known him we had one very, very small disagreement about something that was sorted out in about 35 seconds. Otherwise, we’ve just managed to agree about how the thing should work.”
And they walked away from Dire Straits as pals: “We were able to hold the whole thing together and make it work, in a sense. We ultimately decided to say, ‘I think that’s enough. That’s very nice, thank you very much. Let’s get out before we go completely mad’.”