It couldn’t have been a more welcoming setting for a visit by one of post-punk’s pioneers of goth rock. Torrential downpour. Check. Surrounding grey skies that act as if the sun has been stolen from our universe. Check. Time to bring him out.

Enter Peter Hook to talk about Joy Division and New Order as part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s Legend Series —sunny personality, straight shooter and enlightening raconteur.

His mood was jovial enough that he did an impromptu autograph session at the side of the stage following the interview and q&a with a lucky few in the standing room only crowd – signing anything put before him, taking photos with fans and chatting them up when the opportunity arose.

He arrived a day prior to his Washington D. C. tour opener, which follows a setlist of Joy Division’s 1979 debut album, “Unknown Pleasures” and several other choice cuts by that influential group.

Despite relating during an interview with the Rock Hall’s Director of Education’s Jason Hanley, “We always said as a group, in those moments in the pub when you’re drunk, if any of us ever left, the band would be over. And when Ian died, then the band was over. It becomes very important to yourself, as a musician, not to trade on your past glories,” Hook’s new band, the Light, picked up the baton of history earlier this year.

Now, the group is on a tour that Joy Division never embarked upon due to Ian Curtis’ suicide the evening prior to leaving England. Controversial? Sure. Sacrilege. To some, yes! But, for Hook, he doesn’t give much of a damn and carries on just as he sees fit.

“After 30 years…being accused as I was, of cashing in, I thought that was something you did after 30 minutes. I must be the worst casher in-ner in the world! Waiting 30 years to cash in, right? C’mon!..It’s great to get the music back.”

Hook already played Europe with the Light and found that those who wanted to hear the music live made an impression on him as much as the “keyboard terrorists” blogging their distaste for resurrecting the material. “If I had a dollar for every old geezer I’ve seen stood there crying while we’ve been playing I’d be a very happy man, to say the least. It’s been very nice because it’s not just old geezers – and I love all the old geezers because I am one – but it’s been a great mixture of old and a lot of very young who still appreciate the music. That’s a great compliment to the songwriting talents of myself, Bernard, Stephen and Ian.”

Before any words were spoken by Hook a short film was screened that connected the worlds of punk, Joy Division, New Order, Factory Records (label of both bands), the Hacienda (Manchester club managed by Factory founder Tony Wilson and subject of a book by Hook) and “24 Hour Party People” (the biopic of Wilson’s time with Factory and Hacienda). That was immediately followed by Hook playing bass along to three numbers — three instrumental New Order tracks, “Elegia,” “Sooner Than You Think” and the unreleased “The Happy One.”

It was significant and appropriate that the interviewer’s first question dealt with Hook’s distinctive bass tone. “That came about early, when I paid 10 pounds for my first bass cabinet. It sounded dreadful, so I played high up.” He related that Curtis encouraged the sound, which influenced scores of other alt rock acts, and played a significant role in the sound of Joy Division and New Order.

In a discussion of Joy Division’s penultimate track, “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” it was brought up that Curtis followed the melodic bassline during the chorus while Hook plays around its pattern throughout the verses.

““Love Will Tear Us Apart” was recorded in three hours. It was unbelievable when you look at a song like [New Order’s] “Perfect Kiss” which took six months,” he said, as a bemused smile kept him from laughing at the insanity of the changes in how one band used the studio compared to the next. ““Blue Monday” which took, not as long as “Perfect Kiss” It took about four months to finish “Blue Monday.”

Later, he gave credit to “Unknown Pleasures” producer, the late Martin Hannett, for his part in creating a timeless piece of work; something that the punk rocker in him hated at the time. “He gave it the longevity and depth and the ethereal sound that makes it sound great today. He really did give it an otherworldly feel. It always reminds me of a pool on a moonlit night that you’re desperate to jump into. It took me 28 years to get there, but the guy was an absolute genius.

Similar to the studio methods of Guy Stevens getting the best out of the Clash during the “London Calling” sessions, Hook recalled, “He was an absolute lunatic. He never spoke to you in English. He’d say, ‘Make it harder, but make it softer’ or ‘Make it treble-y-er, but bottom-y-er.’”

Hook was open to any subject, crisscrossing the discussion between his days with Joy Division and New Order with brief stops at his current tour and his last recording outfit, Freebass and multiple digs at the manufactured pop star machines of the UK’s “X Factor” and “Pop Idol,” ala the U.S. “American Idol.”

He gave credit to deejays for their part in establishing New Order when clubs began playing a 12-inch remix version of “Blue Monday.” What I found astonishing about Bernard was, you could give him a synth and he would sit there for hours and hours, twiddling knobs until you were so bored you could put your head though the wall. But at the end of it, it was worth it.”

As much as he credited him for his patience and songwriting talent, he brought up that a part of New Order’s sound came about quite by accident due to Sumner being unable to sing and play guitar at the same time. Thus, it created holes in the material for Hook, Morris and Gillian Gilbert to fill.

Just as amazing as the transformation musically from Joy Division to New Order was that they found their 1983 sophomore effort released on Quincy Jones’ Qwest label. “It was a great compliment when we gave “Power, Corruption & Lies” to Quincy. We just assumed he’d mix it again because he was God, he was Quincy! I remember saying to Quincy Jones, ‘Aren’t you going to remix it?’ He said, ‘Remix it? You fuckers have done a great job! Fuck that!’ And he just put it out. Like, ‘Wow, Quincy thinks we’re good!’ He really is a fantastic man.”

As much as the specter of Ian Curtis hung over the proceedings, one act filtered throughout Hook’s two hours. For him the Sex Pistols’s appearance in Manchester became a life-changing moment that resonates today. After witnessing the punk legends show he immediately turned his back on favorites such as Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple and what he saw as their musical indulgences.

“I went home, the next day, after buying my guitar, took the collar off the dog, cut me clothes up… Me mother didn’t talk to me for a month.

“What got you was the attitude, the arrogance, the rebellion. And I must admit for a 20 year old Englishman like myself it was exactly how I felt. There was nothing about music in that. It was all about the attitude and telling everybody to ‘Eff off.’ Being in a group is a great way to be able to tell everybody to ‘Eff Off.’”

Hook admitted that he wanted Joy Division to have brash musicality of the Pistols but, thankfully, he was overruled. The synth-heavy sound of New Order drove that further away. At least his playing style allowed him to maintain an individualistic approach that spat in the face of using the bass as the anchor or subjecting himself to the role of playing the root note in a song.

“I thought that was what was great about New Order was that I got in the way of the vocal, made a counterpoint to the vocals. The biggest problem we had as a group was when Bernard wanted to stop that.”

He recalled the beginning of the end when Sumner wanted the bass to be eliminated from its normal confrontation with the vocals. As he tells the story Hook pauses, still flabbergasted by the demand, and speaks as if he’s still in front of his ex-bandmate in the studio. “That’s why I play it,” he growled.

After years of rancorous quotes regarding Sumner and Morris in the press, Hook seems more at ease with the past and living in the present.

“I know that tastes change and I know that people change. And all of us can testify to that who have been in a relationship with anyone. What happened was that our tastes changed, our ambitions, our drive and what we wanted to achieve with the group changed. There’s no way you can get around that. It’s just about growing up. That’s what happened. It is sad, but it was really time to move on. I felt that we were doing it for all the wrong reasons.”

Bringing it around to all his bands and, subsequently, including the one that spurred Hook to pick up an instrument in the first place, he mused, “It is about the songs when it comes down to it, and the music. And it’s the only that that gets you through.

“It was all about the music and that to me should be what everything that you do is about.”