T. Rex survivor humbled by Rock Hall induction

Bill Legend remembers well his first shows with T. Rex — April 9-10, 1971, at Detroit’s Eastown Theater, kicking off a U.S. tour opening for the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

And not just because of the music.

“It was my first flight as well, at the time, and my first time in the States,” recalls Legend, the last living member of the T. Rex lineup that’s being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame via an HBO special on Saturday. “I’d only joined the band, like, three weeks before or something. We’d rehearsed solidly for that time, and I think we flew (from London) to New York and then to Detroit.

“It was completely an unknown quantity at the time, what was going to happen. I never went into it thinking this would be with me the rest of my life, you know?”

T. Rex certainly became a known quantity worldwide during Legend’s tenure 1971-73. Fronted by glam rock icon Marc Bolan, the group ruled during that three-year period, with 10 Top 10 singles in the U.K. — including “Get It On (Bang a Gong),” its biggest hit in the U.S. — and three Top 5 albums produced by “fifth member” Tony Visconti, who had recommended Legend to Bolan. The band also starred in the 1972 Ringo Starr-directed concert film “Born to Boogie,” while Bolan — who died in a 1977 car crash at the age of 29 — became a bona fide marquee personality, defining fashion alongside good pal David Bowie, guesting on Electric Light Orchestra’s “On the Third Day” album and, shortly before his death, hosting his own TV show, “Marc.”

“It was a whirlwind,” recalls Legend, 76 — a graphic artist before he joined the band and after he left — who resides in northern California, where he still plays music and is gathering his memories about T. Rex for a possible book. “Three years felt like 30 years. We were going nonstop — in the studio, on the road. I never saw my wife and children.

“But it was fun, and I enjoyed it. I knew where Marc was coming from — he was basically, as we know, a rock ’n’ roller — and I was able to take all the things I’d learned so far and put them into Marc’s music. He was a real showman, but he could do that because (the music) was solid behind him.”

Legend says that during