We've said this before, but it bears repeating: The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has the unique ability to simultaneously honor and insult an artist's career. Guns N' Roses, KISS, Steve Miller, and Dire Straits have all had inductions that somehow turned into a slap in the face. This year's inductee with that distinction is Foreigner.

Sidenote: In another recent example, Mariah Carey, after being nominated for "Music's Highest Honor™" this year, noted in an interview that "my lawyer got in before me," referring to Allen Grubman's 2022 induction, which spoke volumes about the credibility and priorities of the Rock Hall in just a few words.

Prior to 2024, Foreigner had been eligible for over 20 years without ever appearing on a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ballot. Band members were frequently asked about their snub, and they seemed resigned to it never happening. But buoyed by the ouster of their perceived blacklister, Jann Wenner, and an unprecedented publicity push from their management and Mick Jones's son-in-law, Mark Ronson, there was renewed hope to get them inducted. Ronson recruited a star-studded lineup (including Nominating Committee member Dave Grohl) to make the case for them in a video widely shared on social media.

Can you believe Foreigner is not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?? Vote here: https://t.co/MwTwEsSvXB pic.twitter.com/bnuXIivLXd

— Foreigner (@ForeignerMusic) February 20, 2024

The campaign worked, not only with the fans, who lifted Foreigner to third in the Fan Vote standings, but with actual voters with ballots. The outcome seemed inevitable enough that Lou Gramm was already talking about the performance at the ceremony a month before voting ended. But just a few days after the inductees were announced, Gramm revealed there were negotiations with Rock Hall producers about their induction ceremony segment length.

Foreigner's Lou Gramm says that Rock Hall producers have already cut down the time allotted for their induction segment and they may only be able to perform one song. https://t.co/jewrWOD5kH pic.twitter.com/ZH0rp7rl12

— Future Rock Legends (@futurerocklgnds) April 24, 2024

Gramm understood that "I Want to Know What Love Is" had to be one of the songs in the ceremony, but he clearly wanted "Juke Box Hero" played as well, as a rock song counterpoint to the ballad that would better mark the occasion of being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

About three weeks before the induction ceremony, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced many of the presenters and performers who would be at the ceremony (Foreigner was also listed as performing). They announced that Demi Lovato, Sammy Hagar, Slash, and Chad Smith would be performing a tribute to Foreigner. A week later, Kelly Clarkson was added to the list of artists in the Foreigner segment. Yes, that's three announced singers, and performances are usually only three songs, so how would Foreigner fit into that?

At this point, Foreigner (and their management), should have known what the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame producers were doing, which is marginalizing the band in their own induction. Despite the fact that none of Foreigner's members who were getting inducted are currently touring with "Foreigner," Gramm was clearly interested in performing with a mix of original and new members.

Two days before the ceremony, in a sign that things were starting to unravel, Dennis Elliott, the band's original drummer, posted on Facebook that he was skipping the event.

Dear Foreigner Fans & Friends, Don't look too hard, we will not be there. We were finally given the schedule last night, and it is not to our satisfaction. So we are staying home. We have been asking for this for weeks, and they have waited until the very last minute to send it knowing we were all packed and going to bed.

Elliott was referring to himself and his wife, not the entire band, but it seemed clear that the issue with the "schedule" was likely due to his reduced involvement in the performance. A followup article from Billboard, included a pathetic attempt at damage control from "sources in Cleveland," that suggested Elliott wasn't coming because he was told his wife couldn't walk the red carpet. At the same time Elliott revealed he wasn't coming, it was confirmed that Mick Jones also wouldn't attend due to his health issues associated with Parkinson's. That left only Lou Gramm, Al Greenwood, and Rick Wills as inducted members to represent the band at the ceremony. (Ed Gagliardi and Ian McDonald were also posthumously inducted.)

At the ceremony, Sammy Hagar gave a 7 1/2 minute induction speech before introducing Demi Lovato to sing "Feels Like the First Time" with Slash, Chad Smith, and some of Foreigner's touring band backing her up. Hagar reemerged to lead the tribute performance of "Hot Blooded." For the last song, Kelly Clarkson came out to take the lead on "I Want To Know What Love Is," before Lou Gramm finally emerged for the second verse.

The total length of the Foreigner segment at the ceremony was 30 minutes, divided between speeches, a 5-minute video, and the three songs. Lou Gramm performed on stage for two of those minutes.

After the dust settled from the ceremony, Lou Gramm went on Eddie Trunk's radio show and discussed the event, and said he was told it was "time constraints" that the band didn't get to perform together (emphasis ours):

Eddie Trunk: "If someone else is singing it, the song's getting done either way, right?"

Gramm: "I don't think anybody else sang 'Juke Box Hero', but I know they did 'Hot Blooded' and 'Feels Like the First Time'. So I thought an edited version of 'I Wanna Know What Love Is' into an edited version of 'Juke Box Hero' would've been okay. You know, but he didn't explain to me. He just said, 'No, it's not gonna work.'"

Trunk: "Having worked on some of these award shows myself over the years, in various capacities, the managers, sometimes the artists themselves, the event, they always like younger different artists kind of showing that they loved an older band. So in your case, that's a little bit how I read that as well, with the manager maybe saying “no” in that, 'Well, it looks really cool to have Kelly Clarkson or Demi Lovato up there.' Because these are younger current people who are showing how much they loved Foreigner."

Gramm: "Yeah. You know, but the thing for me is I am first and foremost a rock singer, and it is the Rock Hall of Fame. And somehow I couldn't sing a rock song at the Rock Hall of Fame when I'm being inducted? It doesn't make any sense to me, and it sticks in my craw."

Trunk: "I give you credit and the whole Foreigner camp credit, because as much as this may have been difficult and sticky, you still did the best you could given what you had to work with."

Gramm: "Dennis didn't even come… The reason Dennis didn't come was because he found out from management a number of days before Rick, Al and I found out that we weren't gonna play. As soon as Dennis found out that we weren't performing on our night, he decided he wasn't gonna come. And we're just going, 'Dennis, come on. Come. We're gonna play. We're gonna play.' And Dennis goes, 'No, I'm not gonna come. I'm not gonna come.' And then we found out the afternoon of the show that we weren't performing. We thought we were gonna be performing, and Dennis was gonna be there, and we'd have the guitar player from the new Foreigner play mixed parts and play a couple songs. And then we found out at the last minute that it was the new Foreigner who was gonna be playing and Rick and Al would be standing there singing background vocals."

Trunk: "So Rick and Al did not play instruments at all?"

Gramm: "No. Dennis knew about it before anybody else. And he says, 'If we're not, if I'm not playing, I'm not coming.'"

Trunk: "If you would've known sooner, would you have shown?"

Gramm: "I don't know. I didn't know sooner. I didn't know sooner. And when I found out that that's why he didn't come, I even got more angrier, but not at him. It was almost like there was a fast one being played."

To quote Paul McCartney from his Foreigner campaign video, what the fuck?

Rock Hall producers simply decided, that despite being willing and able, they didn't want Foreigner to perform themselves, and then had the tenacity to not let the band know until day or two before the ceremony (Gramm says it was that afternoon!). Instead, they plugged in artists with no personal connection to the band simply to add more contemporary star power to the marquee, without regard to the artist they were supposedly trying to honor, or to the fans who went to Cleveland to see them perform.

The Hall of Fame's relatively recent obsession with collaborations reached a new low this year. Producers are chasing Grammys-style "moments" with unexpected duets and collaborations at the expense of honoring the artists who are receiving their lifetime achievement award. Why should half of Cher's time taken up with Dua Lipa? Why can't Chaka Khan perform a single song by herself instead of sharing the stage with H.E.R., Sia, and Common? What is Dave Grohl doing out there with Lionel Richie? You're now getting living, actively performing inductees, who are forced to share the stage with (in some cases) marginal artists who have no business being on a Hall of Fame stage.

And yes, of course this is because the TV networks want to make the show as big as possible, but the Rock Hall needs to keep in mind they are there to honor the inductees, not serve Disney shareholders. These people have waited a lifetime for this. Stop with the iHeart Music awards bullshit already, and do right by your inductees.

The 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony is just over a month away but very little has been announced about who will be attending and performing. Unlike last year's New York event, this year's Cleveland ceremony sold out quickly so the Hall of Fame doesn't have soft ticket sales as an incentive to promote the show. Expect the Rock Hall or Disney+ to release some specifics in the next week or two. On to the speculation:

1. Which inductees will be attending the ceremony?

   Nothing has been confirmed but it's likely that all eight performer inductees will attend: Mary J. Blige, Cher, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Kool & the Gang, Ozzy Osbourne, Dave Matthews Band, and A Tribe Called Quest.

2. Which of those artists will perform?

   Mary J. Blige, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Kool & the Gang, and Dave Matthews Band all seem like safe bets to perform short sets at the ceremony. Rock Hall antagonist Cher softened her stance against the institution after she was inducted, so she will probably perform as well. Ozzy Osbourne has been public about his desire to perform at the ceremony, but his significant health issues may be too much to overcome. A Tribe Called Quest played their last show in 2017, a year after losing founding member Phife Dawg. Combined with the Rock Hall's mixed history of getting hip hop artists to perform at the ceremony, a Tribe performance seems unlikely.

3. Can we expect any performances for the side category inductees?

   The Rock Hall has a wide range of ways to honor inductees in the Musical Excellence and Musical Influence categories. The segment can be anywhere from only short video tribute (e.g. Elizabeth Cotten in 2022) to a full-blown induction segment with a video, speech, and performance (e.g. LL Cool J in 2021). This year, of the seven inductees in these categories, only Dionne Warwick is still alive. As a former nominee in the performer category, she should receive a complete inductee segment. For Jimmy Buffett, an all-star tribute performance of "Margaritaville" seems all but guaranteed along with the requisite video package. The MC5 will likely get an induction speech and video but no tribute performance. Big Mama Thornton, on the other hand, seems like a perfect candidate to receive a tribute performance including "Hound Dog" and "Ball and Chain." In the interest of time, the Rock Hall will likely combine the Alexis Korner and John Mayall segments and punctuate them with a guitar god performance, like last year's Jimmy Page appearance for Link Wray. Non-Performer inductee Suzanne de Passe will get the standard video and speech.

4. Who will be giving the induction speeches?

   Nothing has been announced, but expect the usual mix of celebrities, past inductees, and future Hall of Famers. After the inductees were announced on American Idol earlier this year, the potential for more ABC/Disney crossover increased exponentially.

5. Who will get the closing slot?

   It's unfair to call any inductee the headliner, but there's little doubt that the majority of the audience in Cleveland will be there primarily for Dave Matthews Band. The induction ceremonies are five-hour marathons that test the stamina of even the most die hard music fans. Last year's final performance by Missy Elliott was one of the best in the Rock Hall's history but was played to a half-full arena. Holding Dave Matthews Band until the end will guarantee the night ends with a full house.

6. Will Cher trash the Hall of Fame in her speech?

   Before she was nominated, Cher had said she would never attend even if the Hall "gave me a million dollars… I’m never going to change my mind. They can just you-know-what themselves." After she was inducted, Cher backtracked and confirmed she would attend but cryptically said, "I’m going to have some words to say. I’m going to accept it as me." Cher has publicly discussed her absence from the Rock Hall for over 14 years, so it will be interesting to see how far she will go criticizing the institution in her speech as she's on stage holding the trophy.

7. Will Boyd Tinsley show up at the ceremony?

   Violinist Boyd Tinsley left the Dave Matthews Band in 2018 amid sexual misconduct accusations and hasn't been actively performing since then. Following a DWI arrest this summer, it seems doubtful that he will attend the ceremony with his former bandmates, but he is an inductee nonetheless.

8. When is the induction ceremony again?

   Saturday, October 19th at 6:30pm. The event is sold out, but tickets are available on the secondary market starting at $400. If you aren't in the building, the show can be viewed live on Disney+.

Comments

Apple Music recently convened a panel of their own experts as well as "a select group of artists" to develop a list of the 100 Best Albums of all time. Unlike some old Rolling Stone lists which leaned heavily on boomer nostalgia, Apple's list includes a wide range of albums across the last 60+ years of popular music. As you might expect, many Rock & Roll Hall of Famers are represented, taking up 56 slots on the list. Of the 44 albums by non-Hall of Famers, 23 are by artists not yet eligible for the Hall of Fame.

The top ranked eligible artists are Lauryn Hill, Dr. Dre, Daft Punk, Alanis Morissette, Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, Outkast, and Björk. As of 2024, none of those artists have been nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Apple Music's full list below, with eligibility dates noted for non-Hall of Famers:

1. Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill - Eligible 2023
2. Michael Jackson - Thriller
3. The Beatles - Abbey Road
4. Prince - Purple Rain
5. Frank Ocean - Blonde - Eligible 2036
6. Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
7. Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city - Eligible 2034
8. Amy Winehouse - Back to Black - Eligible 2028
9. Nirvana - Nevermind
10. Beyonce - Lemonade - Eligible 2027
11. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
12. Radiohead - OK Computer
13. Jay-Z - The Blueprint
14. Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
15. Adele - 21 - Eligible 2032
16. Joni Mitchell - Blue
17. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
18. Taylor Swift - 1989 (Taylor's Version) - Eligible 2031
19. Dr. Dre - The Chronic - Eligible 2018
20. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
21. The Beatles - Revolver
22. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
23. Daft Punk - Discovery - Eligible 2020
24. David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
25. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
26. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Eligible 2027
27. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II
28. Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon
29. A Tribe Called Quest - Low End Theory
30. Billie Eilish - WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? - Eligible 2041
31. Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill - Eligible 2017
32. The Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die
33. Radiohead - Kid-A
34. Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
35. The Clash - London Calling
36. Beyonce - BEYONCE - Eligible 2027
37. Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (38-Chambers) - Eligible 2018
38. Carole King - Tapestry
39. Nas - Illmatic - Eligible 2018
40. Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
41. Outkast - Aquemini - Eligible 2019
42. Janet Jackson - Control
43. Talking Heads - Remain in Light
44. Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
45. Bjork - Homogenic - Eligible 2003
46. Bob Marley and the Wailers - Exodus
47. Drake - Take Care - Eligible 2034
48. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
49. U2 - The Joshua Tree
50. Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
51. Prince - Sign of the Times
52. Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
53. The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
54. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme - Eligible 1986
55. Rihanna - Anti - Eligible 2030
56. The Cure - Disintegration
57. D'Angelo - Voodoo - Eligible 2021
58. Oasis - What's the Story Morning Glory - Eligible 2020
59. Arctic Monkeys - AM - Eligible 2030
60. The Velvet Underground and Nico - The Velvet Underground and Nico
61. Sade - Love Deluxe - Eligible 2010
62. Tupac - All Eyez on Me
63. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced
64. Erykah Badu - Baduizm - Eligible 2022
65. De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising - Eligible 2014
66. The Smiths - The Queen is Dead - Eligible 2009
67. Portishead - Dummy - Eligible 2020
68. The Strokes - Is This It - Eligible 2026
69. Metallica - Master of Puppets
70. N.W.A - Straight Outta Compton
71. Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express
72. SZA - SOS - Eligible 2039
73. Steely Dan - Aja
74. Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
75. Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly
76. Bad Bunny - Un Verano Senti - Eligible 2041
77. Madonna - Like a Prayer
78. Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
79. Lana Del Rey - Norman F***ing Rockwell - Eligible 2033
80. Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP
81. Neil Young - After the Gold Rush
82. 50 Cent - Get Rich or Die Tryin' - Eligible 2024
83. Patti Smith - Horses
84. Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle - Eligible 2019
85. Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour - Eligible 2037
86. Mary J. Blige - My Life
87. Massive Attack - Blue Lines - Eligible 2014
88. Nina Simone - I Put a Spell on You
89. Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster (Deluxe Edition) - Eligible 2033
90. AC/DC - Back in Black
91. George Michael - Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1
92. Tyler, The Creator - Flower Boy - Eligible 2034
93. Solange - A Seat at the Table - Eligible 2027
94. Burial - Untrue - Eligible 2030
95. Usher - Confessions - Eligible 2019
96. Lorde - Pure Heroine - Eligible 2037
97. Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
98. Travis Scott - ASTROWORLD - Eligible 2038
99. Eagles - Hotel California
100. Robyn - Body Talk - Eligible 2021

On their website, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame succinctly explains the process of how artists in the performer category are chosen:

Each year, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation's Nominating Committee selects the group of artists nominated in the Performer Category. Ballots are then sent to more than 1,000 historians, members of the music industry and artists—including every living Rock Hall Inductee—and the top performers (typically five to seven each year) receiving the most votes become that year's induction class.

The Rock Hall has never released a full list of all of their voters, but it is well known that it changes from year-to-year as new artists are inducted and when music industry voters cycle in and out.

In the last couple of years, it's been revealed that there is a policy that voters can be removed from the list if they don't return their ballots two years in a row. Based on the rule above, it seemed logical that this policy would only apply to the discretionary voter selections made by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and its president Joel Peresman, not the inductees.

However, on a member-exclusive episode of the Who Cares About the Rock Hall? podcast, DJ Yella (2016 inductee with N.W.A) revealed that he hasn't received a ballot in years. At the end of the episode, host Joe Kwaczala shared that an inside source believed that the policy about losing your ballot after not returning it two years in a row was likely the reason Yella couldn't vote.

A few thoughts on this revelation:

1. This is f**king insane!
2. It's one thing to take away a vote from an absentee critic or industry person, but doing it to a Hall of Famer is indefensible.
3. How long has this been going on? The Rock Hall has unequivocally stated that "every living Rock Hall inductee" receives a ballot for as long as we can remember.
4. Apparently Hall of Famers lose voting privileges for life if they miss two ballots in a row. Again, this is insane!
5. Does anyone think the Rock Hall applies this "rule" to all Hall of Famers, or just ones they don't care as much about? There is zero chance they would do this to Hall of Fame favorites like Bruce Springsteen or Paul McCartney.
6. What is the possible justification for doing this? Is it too much hassle to keep inductees' addresses current? Are you trying to save on postage? Are there some inductees' opinions you don't value? Seriously, someone try to justify this policy.
7. On the other hand, there are countless legitimate reasons an inductee may not return their ballot. Maybe they moved. Maybe they've been on tour. Maybe they don't like the nominees. None of those reasons should mean they lose their voting rights.
8. And yes, for inductees, these are voting RIGHTS. The Rock Hall is unique among peer institutions exactly because inductees vote who else gets in! Whoever instituted this policy has zero understanding of what gives an induction its significance.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame should publicly address this policy shift and clearly state how many inductees have lost their voting rights through this year. Moving forward, they need to reverse course and send ballots to ALL of their Hall of Famers, without exception. (And then get rid of the person that came up with this "policy" in the first place.)

The 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductees were announced live during American Idol on Sunday, April 21st. The induction ceremony will be held in Cleveland on Saturday, October 19th.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame voting ends on April 15th and they will officially announce the class of 2024 by the end of the month. Future Rock Legends predicts the inductees in the Performer category will be:

1. Kool & the Gang: The overwhelming support for Kool & the Gang from voters who have made their ballots public is unprecedented. The Rock Hall is probably kicking itself for waiting so long to nominate such a wildly successful band that crossed multiple genres and decades, and is clearly beloved.
2. Cher: Despite her suspicious public protestations about the Hall of Fame before she was nominated, Cher will likely cooperate and walk in after finally making her first ballot.
3. Foreigner: There's never been a public campaign like the one organized by Mark Ronson in support of his stepfather (Mick Jones). The band was eager to embrace the endorsements of Hall of Famers like Paul McCartney, Slash, Dave Grohl, and Chad Smith, and also heavily promoted the Fan Vote.
4. Peter Frampton: There was an outpouring of love when Frampton performed with Sheryl Crow at the 2023 induction ceremony, which vaulted him onto this year's ballot. Frampton's career peak in the 1970s was in the sweet spot for a significant chunk of voters who were coming of age during that time.
5. A Tribe Called Quest: The Rock Hall seems to want Tribe to get inducted before they can move on to other equally deserving hip hop artists such as Wu Tang and OutKast. Expect ATCQ to make the cut this year to open up future ballots for others.
6. Sinead O'Connor: As unfortunate as it was that it took her death to get the Nominating Committee's attention, the career reflection that followed gives Hall of Fame voters a unique opportunity to cement that legacy.
7. Lenny Kravitz: Like Sheryl Crow last year, Kravitz has countless friends in the industry that he can count on for votes. As a musical chameleon, he appeals to multiple demographics.

Additional Notes and Open Questions:

• The Rock Hall's rule change to allow voters to select seven artists instead of just five has been a massive improvement. Listening to voters work through their ballots on the Who Cares About the Rock Hall? podcast has shown that much of the pretzel logic voting of past years is gone. We're glad the Rock Hall finally took our suggestion ;)
• It's going to be fascinating to see how the increase to seven picks will impact the voting. The expansion could lead to some unexpected results.
• Allowing voters choose seven artists implies they will induct seven names from the ballot, but they haven't explicitly said they will do that. After inducting seven in 2022 and 2023, anything less than that will be a disappointment given the giant backlog.
• What about Ozzy? Despite his icon status, voters may look another way because 1) he's already an inductee with Black Sabbath, and 2) metal doesn't get much respect from the Rock Hall's voters.
• Dave Matthews Band dominated the official Fan Vote, and if they get passed over again, they'll cement their position as the number one populist snub.
• Is Mariah Carey too big to fail? It will be a tough pill to swallow for a star of her magnitude to miss out on a career achievement like this, but for whatever reason, voter support appears to be soft.
• Lenny Kravitz has had a quiet a year. He's already performed two career-spanning medleys at the 2023 iHeartRadio Music Festival and the 2023 People's Choice Awards, where he picked up a Music Icon Award. Just last month he was honored by his daughter and Denzel Washington when getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. After all of that, a Rock Hall induction may seem redundant.
• The public health issues of Ozzy, Peter Frampton, and key members of Foreigner, could certainly motivate voters to cast their votes for them this year.
• What do our readers think is going to happen? The results from our own prediction poll:





• The 2024 induction ceremony will be back in Cleveland this fall and will likely sell out quickly, no matter who gets inducted. Last year the Rock Hall was forced to lower their exorbitant ticket prices after demand was soft for the Brooklyn ceremony.
• Paul McCartney has appeared at two of the last three Cleveland ceremonies. Maybe he'll be back again this year?

Foreigner's a lock. https://t.co/TcTupbD4Dp

— Future Rock Legends (@futurerocklgnds) February 27, 2024

• The Rock Hall's "Fans Ballot" winners were Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Ozzy Osbourne, Cher, Lenny Kravitz, and Kool & the Gang. Historically fan vote winners have been inducted slightly more than 50% of the time, so it's no guarantee of induction (last year only one artist from the top five made it in).
• Lastly, a quick plug for our other websites which, like this site, focus on the greatest of all-time in their respective categories: Future Country Legends, Future Hip Hop Legends, and Future Football Legends. If you're into best-of lists and Halls of Fame, you'll find a lot to like over there.


Comments

• You have to go back to 2014 to find the last ballot that had 10 brand new names on it. Roughly 62% of Hall of Famers in the past 20 years were inducted on their first nomination, so look for voters to gravitate to the artists they haven't seen on a ballot before.
• The "Fans Ballot" is back for its 11th year, but this time there's an important change. Fans can vote for up to SEVEN names each day, which implies that's what the actual voters will be faced with as well. Up until this year, Voting Committee members have been forced to narrow their choices to a maximum of five names, even when the number of performers chosen grew to 6 or 7. It didn't make any sense before, so this is a vast improvement and one we've been arguing for.

• Let your voters check off more than five names on the ballot, especially if you're going to induct more than that. Give them a chance to vote for the most *deserving* artists and not force them to twist themselves into knots with strategic decisions about who "needs the votes"

  — Future Rock Legends (@futurerocklgnds) January 20, 2022

• There is only one repeat nominee from last year's ballot, A Tribe Called Quest. That hasn't happened since 2010, when The Stooges were the lone holdover from the previous year. The other four multi-nominated artists on this year's ballot each have only one other nomination, so even these artists still feel fresh and not like "ballot-filler."
• Cher bringing up her exclusion from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame out of the blue on the Kelly Clarkson Show a few months ago sure feels like a big set up now (as discussed on the Rock In Retrospect podcast, and with our nominee prediction). This has probably been a done deal for a long time. We'll see how serious she was when she promised to "never change her mind" about accepting the honor.
• Say what you want about the Hall of Fame worthiness of Foreigner and Peter Frampton, but there's really no excuse that artists of their stature had to wait over 20 years just to be nominated. Voters may ultimately turn them down, but if it weren't for the Rock Hall's broken nomination and induction system, they should have had this opportunity decades ago.
• The Country Music Hall of Fame has a wise rule that you are ineligible to be nominated for at least a year after you die. The Rock Hall's nomination of Sinead O'Connor so soon after she passed away feels exploitative and gross. Their justification that an artist's true legacy can become clear with the tributes when they die is insulting and just indicts them as followers of culture instead of leaders. A Hall of Fame induction should be the triggering event for a public career reevaluation, not a death. (This also applies to Kool & the Gang, who have lost many original members since becoming eligible in 1995.)
• Look, Lenny Kravitz has been a rock star for 35 years, but his Hall of Fame credentials are very thin. Zero albums or singles on Rolling Stone's top 500 lists and he's hasn't even been able to crack our readers' Snub List, which has over 130 deserving artists still waiting for the call. The 1990s was absolutely an incredible era for music, so it's hard to fathom why Lenny Kravitz won the nomination lottery other than his status as an industry darling.
• Oasis, on the other hand, have everything you'd want in a Hall of Fame career, including the "f**k you" attitude of not wanting it at all.
• Nominating Committee - try to listen to the people in your group who are nominating artists like Jane's Addiction, Sade, and Eric B. & Rakim, and minimize the input from industry executives who have other motives.
• Alan Light talked on his podcast about how great it was to have "new blood" on the Nominating Committee this year. "The idea is not to freeze all of [the NomCom and Voting members] in one place, and have everything move around it, but continue to move with the changes and try to keep up with the world as time marches on." Light has now been on the Nominating Committee for 18 years.
• In an interview with NPR, museum president Greg Harris touted the Hall of Fame's recent gains with inducting women and people of color. Evelyn McDonnell still finds their actions lacking given their well-documented track record.
• Others have pointed out the clumsiness of this year's ballot announcement, so we won't rehash the whole thing here, but the Rock Hall needs to learn from other Halls of Fame about how to handle the basic principles of these things. They have never been good at announcements, but this was a new level of bad.
• The Fan Vote ends April 26th. (But where can one find this information? It's nowhere to be found on the Rock Hall's website or social media. No, you just have to go to Lenny Kravitz's Instagram for the exclusive ballot details.)
• ABC and Disney+ will be the Rock Hall's broadcast partners for the second year in a row. Turns out streaming the ceremony live and then airing it later on traditional broadcast TV gets it in front of a lot more people than locked down on HBO.
• It's tough to say if the live stream on Disney+ is what suppressed ticket demand for the 2023 induction ceremony in Brooklyn, but tickets were available for well below face value. This year's ceremony will be in Cleveland, which always turns out big for these hometown events, so if ticket demand is soft again, the live stream may be the culprit. (If they induct Dave Matthews Band, they won't have a ticket problem.)
• This is getting a bit ridiculous:

• Is the Rock Hall just trading nominations for guest appearances at ceremonies and in tribute videos at this point? LOL. Participate and you’re nominated the next year or two.

  — Troy Smith (@troylsmith) February 10, 2024

• No country artists are on the performer ballot this year. We'll have to wait and see if any make it into the special categories, or if the Rock Hall has lost interest in the genre again (there's no shortage of qualified artists, that's for sure).

The 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nominees were announced at 11:30am EST on February 10th. Inductees will be revealed in April, and will be honored at a ceremony in Cleveland in the fall.

On Saturday, the Rock Hall issued a brief statement to the press: "Jann Wenner has been removed from the board of directors of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation."

That announcement followed a wild 36 hours since a New York Times interview was posted where the Rock Hall co-founder and 2004 inductee made comments that were dismissive of Black and women artists.

Here is the exchange in the interview which led to the controversy:

There are seven subjects in the new book; seven white guys. In the introduction, you acknowledge that performers of color and women performers are just not in your zeitgeist. Which to my mind is not plausible for Jann Wenner. Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder, the list keeps going — not in your zeitgeist? What do you think is the deeper explanation for why you interviewed the subjects you interviewed and not other subjects?

Well, let me just. …

Carole King, Madonna. There are a million examples.

When I was referring to the zeitgeist, I was referring to Black performers, not to the female performers, OK? Just to get that accurate. The selection was not a deliberate selection. It was kind of intuitive over the years; it just fell together that way. The people had to meet a couple criteria, but it was just kind of my personal interest and love of them. Insofar as the women, just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level.

Oh, stop it. You’re telling me Joni Mitchell is not articulate enough on an intellectual level?

Hold on a second.

I’ll let you rephrase that.

All right, thank you. It’s not that they’re not creative geniuses. It’s not that they’re inarticulate, although, go have a deep conversation with Grace Slick or Janis Joplin. Please, be my guest. You know, Joni was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll. She didn’t, in my mind, meet that test. Not by her work, not by other interviews she did. The people I interviewed were the kind of philosophers of rock.

Of Black artists — you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right? I suppose when you use a word as broad as “masters,” the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level.

How do you know if you didn’t give them a chance?

Because I read interviews with them. I listen to their music. I mean, look at what Pete Townshend was writing about, or Jagger, or any of them. They were deep things about a particular generation, a particular spirit and a particular attitude about rock ’n’ roll. Not that the others weren’t, but these were the ones that could really articulate it.

Don’t you think it’s actually more to do with your own interests as a fan and a listener than anything particular to the artists? I think the problem is when you start saying things like “they” or “these artists can’t.” Really, it’s a reflection of what you’re interested in more than any ability or inability on the part of these artists, isn’t it?

That was my No. 1 thing. The selection was intuitive. It was what I was interested in. You know, just for public relations sake, maybe I should have gone and found one Black and one woman artist to include here that didn’t measure up to that same historical standard, just to avert this kind of criticism. Which, I get it. I had a chance to do that. Maybe I’m old-fashioned and I don’t give a [expletive] or whatever. I wish in retrospect I could have interviewed Marvin Gaye. Maybe he’d have been the guy. Maybe Otis Redding, had he lived, would have been the guy.

Wenner may not have "given a fuck," but the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame clearly did. Since 2020, under chairman John Sykes, the Hall of Fame has been trying to repair their "all-boys club" reputation that was forged under Wenner, His comments were clearly incendiary enough for them to sever the last remaining ties to their founder. (The Board vote was reportedly unanimous with the exception of longtime Nominating Committee chairman Jon Landau.)

Wenner's other institution, Rolling Stone, also tried to distance themselves from his comments:

Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner has been ousted from his position on the Board of Directors of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. The news was announced on Saturday, following an interview with The New York Times, where he made widely criticized comments about Black and female musicians, alongside revealing other questionable editorial decisions.

Wenner is promoting his book, The Masters, which features interviews with influential artists, such as Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Pete Townshend, John Lennon, and Bruce Springsteen — none of the artists featured are female or non-white. In the Times interview with Wenner that published on Friday, he said that Black and also female musicians “didn’t articulate at the level” of the white male musicians in his tome.

…

Beyond the controversial comments about the artists that were and were not featured in The Masters, he also revealed during the interview that he allowed interview subjects to edit transcripts of their interviews prior to publication, which is not an accepted editorial practice and Rolling Stone does not allow interviewees to approve transcripts or final copy.

After being fired from the Rock Hall's Board of Directors, Wenner released an apology, “I totally understand the inflammatory nature of badly chosen words and deeply apologize and accept the consequences."

Those "badly chosen words" now provide the necessary context for understanding Wenner's legacy at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and beyond.

The good, the bad and the ugly of the 2023 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee announcement:

The Good:

• The inductees! With this ballot it was impossible to make an induction class that wasn't going to be fantastic, but there are some special things about this group: Missy Elliott being the only first ballot black woman and the first female hip hop inductee; The Spinners finally getting over the hump; Rage Against the Machine injecting some much-needed rebelliousness; rewriting George Michael's legacy; honoring Willie Nelson while he's still active; and Sheryl Crow's positivity towards the institution.
• Link Wray's induction! When the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame created the "Singles Category" in 2018 to honor significant songs from artists who weren't in the Hall of Fame, it felt like a consolation prize and a sign that those artists wouldn't be nominated as Performers eligible for induction. And up until now, that had held true. After nominations on the main ballot in 2014 and 2018, Link Wray was selected by the renamed "Musical Influence" committee to be a Hall of Famer this year. This opens up the potential for others who had previously been dismissed as candidates because of their Singles Category honor. It's also a direct consequence of the Hall of Fame's expanded use of the Special Categories to make up for oversights on the Performer ballot. The Hall of Fame had already thrown out the original definition of "Early Influence," which was intended to honor pre-rock 'n roll artists, so Link Wray is a natural fit for this category.
• No artists jumped from the Performer ballot to the Special Categories in the same year! This may seem like a minor point, but last year Judas Priest failed to be inducted on the regular ballot for the third time but were named in the Musical Excellence category anyway. That felt a lot like a consolation prize in the minds of fans, and even Rob Halford. LL Cool J's induction was done the same way in 2021. This year, the Rock Hall kept Chaka Khan off of the ballot clearly knowing they were going to induct her no matter what. This is a far better solution and makes the Hall of Fame seem like they aren't insulting artists while they're trying to honor them. Credit goes to new Nominating Committee chairman Rick Krim for the new discipline (assuming he's responsible).
• Another huge induction class! In each year under the direction of chairman John Sykes, the Rock Hall has had at least 13 inductees. In the years just prior to him taking over, classes were usually around seven, which made the backlog grow deeper every year. Whether the new standard of 13 is enough to make a dent in the snub list remains to be seen, but the larger classes have helped tremendously to honor artists who never would have had a chance in the old system.
• The Fan Vote's impact on the results. After last year's Fan Vote top five all got swept into the Hall of Fame, the significance of the results may have been overblown in the minds of fans. Yes, this year's winner got in again, but outside of that, the others in the top five were shut out. This was a similar result to 2020 when the only top five finisher to get in were the Doobie Brothers, and the runaway fan vote winner Dave Matthews Band did not. This year, Cyndi Lauper fans put up an admirable fight for first place, but ultimately finished in second. Similarly, in 2021, Fela Kuti's fans pushed his name to second in the poll. But after the disappointment of him missing out, they completely abandoned voting for him in 2022 so he finished last. If Cyndi Lauper or Warren Zevon return to the ballot next year, we'll see if their fans return with the same passion they had this year.
• Returning to Cleveland in 2024. The Rock Hall confirmed they are recommitting to hosting the induction ceremony in Cleveland every other year, beginning in 2024. Other cities in the rotation like New York and Los Angeles will have to share the "odd" years (L.A. in 2025? Brooklyn in 2027?), not to mention other cities like London and Nashville that John Sykes teased could get into the rotation.

The Bad:

• The inductee announcement. The Rock Hall tweeted on April 30th that the announcement would be made on May 3rd, but with no additional time or information. Since the SiriusXM deal apparently expired, they were silent as well. The Rock Hall finally tweeted a video of LL Cool J reading the names just after 8am Eastern, and directed people to Apple Music 1 to hear the "complete announcement." That show didn't seem to be live and have any of the energy or discussions that existed on SiriusXM.
• The length of the Fan Vote. There's no reason to encourage fans to vote daily for nearly three months for something with such little impact. That's not an argument in favor of increasing the importance of the Fan Vote, but just to decrease the time devoted to it all.

• The metal problem. Anyone who follows the Rock Hall closely knew that Iron Maiden had no shot at being inducted by way of the Performer ballot. The Voting Committee has proven time and time again that unless an artist has had multiple radio-friendly "hits," they're not interested. The Hall of Fame keeps using the Special Categories to address this deficiency in their system, but they may need to provide more guidance to the voters about what they should be rewarding if they want it to actually change. (Go back to explicitly saying it's not about sales and hit records. Remind voters that innovation and influence is critical. These were some of the guiding principles they used to promote, but have clearly strayed away from.)

The Ugly:

• Messy personal histories. Don Cornelius's career is unquestionably worth celebrating, it's just unfortunate his personal life puts a stain on his legacy.

Like any other year, there are plenty of other things to criticize about the induction process, but on the whole, this year has fewer issues than most and has lots of reasons to celebrate.

The 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductees were announced at 8am EDT on May 3rd. The Induction Ceremony will be held on November 3rd in Brooklyn, New York.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame will officially announce the class of 2023 on Wednesday, May 3rd. Future Rock Legends predicts the inductees in the Performer category will be:

1. Willie Nelson: The only certainty in this year's hyper-competitive ballot is that Willie Nelson is getting inducted. Once you nominate a legend like Willie who has a resume longer than most Hall of Famers, you simply have to put him in.
2. Missy Elliott: Hosting the ceremony in New York in hip hop's 50th anniversary year provides a great opportunity to induct Missy Elliott, one of hip hop's true innovators.
3. George Michael: The Voting Committee historically marks their ballots in favor of artists who haven't previously been nominated. Roughly 2/3 of inductees get in the first time they appear on a ballot.
4. Warren Zevon: The catalyst for Zevon's appearance on the ballot was a letter from Billy Joel advocating for his induction. Joel likely didn't stop his lobbying once he was nominated, and he's been joined in the effort by David Letterman.
5. Sheryl Crow: After being the presenter at previous induction ceremonies, this year it will be Sheryl Crow's turn to be on the receiving end of the honor.
6. Cyndi Lauper: After the recent inductions of The Go-Go's and Duran Duran, the Rock Hall continues to dig deeper into the superstars of 1980s MTV. Cyndi Lauper's industry connections are a huge asset with their overlap with the Voting Committee.

Additional Notes:

• This year's ballot is stacked with deserving candidates and it's not hard to make a case how (almost) any of them could be inducted. It's painful to leave them off the list above.
• We incorrectly predicted Chaka Khan would be inducted in the Musical Excellence category last year, but it has to happen this year, right?
• Since 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop, we're predicting the Rock Hall will have a big segment of the ceremony devoted to the genre, including an Early Influence induction of DJ Kool Herc.
• If the induction class is at least 50% women, the Rock Hall will breathe a sigh of relief given the renewed criticism of the lack of women who have been honored.
• This is the second year of the public Ballot Tracker. The top five artists currently in the lead of known ballots are Kate Bush, Joy Division/New Order, Missy Elliott, The Spinners, and A Tribe Called Quest. Last year, the public ballots were not indicative of the actual results.
• The top five winners of the Fan Vote this year were George Michael, Cyndi Lauper, Warren Zevon, Iron Maiden, and Soundgarden. That's the second top-five finish for both Iron Maiden and Soundgarden, which bodes well for their future inductions, even if it will come in the form of Musical Excellence. Fela Kuti and Dave Matthews Band are the only other artists to finish in the top-five and haven't been inducted.
• There hasn't been an entire performer class of first year nominated artists (FYNs) since 2009.
• As mentioned above, the induction ceremony will be in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center, the site of the 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2019 events. The Rock Hall had previously promised Cleveland they could host every other year, but that deal seems to no longer exist. The upcoming construction at the museum will be enough of an excuse to quell any grumbling from the Cleveland contingent for a few years.

For sixteen years we have been conducting an unofficial poll on this site which requires voters to select five artists on their ballot. The results (after 1679 ballots):

1. Kate Bush 54% (they appeared on 54% of the ballots)
2. Willie Nelson 50%
3. Iron Maiden 49%
4. Soundgarden 48%
5. Joy Division/New Order 48%
6. Cyndi Lauper 42%
7. George Michael 36%
8. Warren Zevon 30%
9. Sheryl Crow 30%
10. The White Stripes 27%
11. The Spinners 24%
12. Rage Against the Machine 22%
13. Missy Elliott 19%
14. A Tribe Called Quest 19%

A bit early for any definitive predictions, but it's really difficult to imagine a scenario where a least six of these don't get into the Rock Hall this year:
-Willie Nelson
-Sheryl Crow
-Warren Zevon
-Missy Elliott
-The White Stripes
-George Michael
-Cyndi Lauper

— Future Rock Legends (@futurerocklgnds) February 24, 2023

The 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Fan Vote wrapped up on Friday, after a nearly 3 month voting period. The top five were locked in after just two weeks, so the rest of the polling time was spent waiting to see if leader George Michael could pass the one million vote mark (he did). Michael, Cyndi Lauper, Warren Zevon, Iron Maiden, and Soundgarden will each receive one vote which will be tallied with the 1000+ others from the Voting Committee, whose ballots were also due on the 28th. Inductees should be announced this week.

Much of the history of the fan vote has been documented on this site, primarily revolving around the myriads of technical issues of the poll. There is now an exclusive page devoted to the final statistics of each year's Fan Vote, beginning in 2013. Reviewing the nominees' placements, it's easy to see there is a rough correlation between the fans' choices and the inductees, and how rare it is to finish low in the poll and be inducted (but it does happen occasionally).

View the Rock Hall Fan Vote History and Totals

In recent weeks there has been renewed public interest in the amount of women in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame after influential writer Jessica Hopper, annoyed about the Hall's posts celebrating Women's History Month, tweeted the sobering statistics.

Do they tho? 719 inductees to the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, only 61 are women. That's 8.48%. C'mon @rockhall, it's FUCKING GRIM BRO when yr doing worse than women-artists-on-country radio numbers (10%) and women headliners at major music festivals (13%) https://t.co/YvpCvwZ72o

— Jessica Hopper (@jesshopp) March 10, 2023

Hole frontwoman Courtney Love noticed the tweets and wrote a scathing indictment of the institution in an op-ed in The Guardian.

If so few women are being inducted into the Rock Hall, then the nominating committee is broken. If so few Black artists, so few women of colour, are being inducted, then the voting process needs to be overhauled. Music is a lifeforce that is constantly evolving – and they can’t keep up. Shame on HBO for propping up this farce.

If the Rock Hall is not willing to look at the ways it is replicating the violence of structural racism and sexism that artists face in the music industry, if it cannot properly honour what visionary women artists have created, innovated, revolutionised and contributed to popular music – well, then let it go to hell in a handbag.

The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde followed with a public post on Facebook dismissing the institution as "establishment backslapping" and saying she didn't want to be associated with it.

With all of that as context, here are updated graphs showing the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's record of inducting women.

First, showing the split among all individuals who have been inducted (all categories):

Next, showing the split between all-male acts versus artists with at least one woman (Performer category only):

Finally, the numbers on the Rock Hall's Nominating Committee over the years:

As a point of reference, out of the 183 inducted members of the Country Music Hall of Fame, 25 are women (13.7%). Full list of the members of the Country Music Hall of Fame can be found at Future Country Legends.

The Country Music Hall of Fame inductees are selected by a secret committee run by the Country Music Association (CMA). It's unknown what the gender split is for those involved.

For more on the subject of Women in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, review our extensive archive on the subject dating back over a decade.

Nearly 16 years ago to the day, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five made history and became the first hip hop artists inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The question of whether hip hop belonged in the Rock Hall was one of hottest subjects surrounding the institution and debated on this website. Now in 2023, and after nine other hip hop artists have been included, the debate around hip hop is not a matter of if it should be represented, but why haven't foundational artists been inducted yet?

Because the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame now strives to include all popular music genres, it doesn't have the capacity under their current system to appropriately honor the diversity, richness, and depth of the half-century history of Hip Hop. This is why a dedicated Hip Hop Hall of Fame needs to exist.

But isn't there already a Hip Hop Hall of Fame?

Yes and no. You can read up on its complicated and messy history at Future Hip Hop Legends, but just know that at the first three "Hip Hop Hall of Fame" induction ceremonies (in 1991, 1996, and 2002), put on by three different organizations, Grandmaster Flash was honored at all of them. At best, it's woefully behind and incomplete.

Without the anchor of a true Hall of Fame (yet), Future Hip Hop Legends will serve as a platform to discuss and discover the most important hip hop artists of the past, present, and future, setting the stage for the inevitable institution that will immortalize them.

FutureHipHopLegends.com is home for the following:

• A ranking of the 50 greatest hip hop artists of all-time
• A history of the Hip Hop Hall of Fame and other competing institutions (there have been many!)
• The top artists who debuted in every year since 1979
• List of hip hop artists who have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
• Polls for every artist about their Hall of Fame worthiness
• Much more…

Like all of our sites, Future Hip Hop Legends will continue to evolve with feedback and suggestions from our readers.

This year makes the 50th anniversary of the birth of Hip Hop, and as we saw from the epic performance at the Grammys, there's a desperate need to celebrate and immortalize the legends in a museum for future generations. We'll be ready.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame had been hoping to hold the announcement until May, but Nominating Committee member Amy Linden disclosed on her podcast that the Induction Ceremony would be returning to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn this fall.

In Linden's conversation with Run-DMC's Darryl McDaniels, they discussed that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame will be taking part in the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop celebrations happening this year, so it was fitting the ceremony will be in New York.

Just a few months ago, unnamed representatives from the Rock Hall continued to insist the induction ceremonies would still be returning to Cleveland every other year despite the indications from the Hall of Fame's chairman John Sykes that the events would be on a three city rotation (and potentially include other cities like Nashville and London).

Cleveland last hosted an induction ceremony in 2021, so after stops in Los Angeles and Brooklyn, it would theoretically be on deck for the 2024 event.

See our list of every induction ceremony location

The day the 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ballot was officially announced, Nominating Committee member Amy Linden revealed on her podcast the ranking of the artists from the group's vote.

On her ImmaLetYouFinish podcast yesterday, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nominating Committee member Amy Linden revealed the standings from the group’s vote, including that there was a three-way tie for the last ballot spot. More to come… #RockHall2023 pic.twitter.com/OpY99fojHg

— Future Rock Legends (@futurerocklgnds) February 3, 2023

This ranking may not correlate much with the 1100+ member Voting Committee's wishes, but it offers a glimpse into the Nominating Committee's levels of support for each artist. Only 5-7 of these names be inducted this year, but those at the top may have an easier time returning to the ballot to try again next year.

The 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nominees were announced at 8am EST on February 1st. Inductees will be revealed in May, and will be honored at a ceremony in a location yet to be announced.

Please vote in our fan poll!

Follow us on Twitter for the latest Rock Hall news and analysis.

Last month, John Sykes, chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, announced that Jon Landau had stepped down as the head of the Nominating Committee. Landau, in addition to his day job as Bruce Springsteen's manager, had served as chairman or co-chairman of the group since 1994. John Sykes:

Jon [Landau], throughout his nearly 30-year tenure leading the performers nominating committee, has shaped the look and sound of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame we see today. He possesses an incredible mind for music and over the years has consistently updated the committee membership and encouraged the group to keep pace with the evolving sounds that have moved the culture. Jon was an early proponent of the Hall of Fame's recognizing hip-hop as an important driver of the evolution of rock 'n' roll. He notified us after overseeing this year’s ballot that he was stepping down after having delivered yet another group of iconic performers. We will miss him.

After playing such an integral role in the Hall of Fame for the majority of its existence, Landau deserves the same credit for the successes and blame for the failures that the institution itself receives.

John Sykes named his longtime friend, and former MTV co-worker, Rick Krim, the next chairman of the Nominating Committee. Sykes again:

I’ve had the privilege of knowing Rick from our very early days together at MTV and VH1, and I’ve watched him firsthand grow into a gifted talent executive. Rick has a rare combination of knowledge and passion that has made him a valuable member of our nominating committee for 15 years. What makes Rick the perfect person for this position is that, like Jon, he can manage a diverse group of committee members without leading with his own opinion.

So what else do we know about Rick Krim?

• Born in 1959
• From Williamsport, Pennsylvania
• He was an accounting major at Bucknell University
• Worked at MTV between 1982-1994 and VH1 from 2001-2014
• Moved from New York to L.A. in 2015
• Asked to join the Nominating Committee in 2008/2009 because he felt that prog rock wasn't being well represented
• Has publicly expressed support for Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Yes, Genesis, the Doobie Brothers, Radiohead, and Oasis
• He was executive producer of I'm Going to Break Your Heart (Wilco doc), CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story, Meat Loaf's Behind the Music episode, and many VH1 Divas specials
• Co-produces the Rock Hall Induction Ceremony each year

You can find out more about Krim here, here, and here.

So does Krim's prog and metal fandom mean there will be significant changes in the types of artists named on future Rock Hall ballots? Time will tell, but it seems unlikely. John Sykes hand-picked Krim to continue executing his vision, so it's a safe bet that things generally stay the course.

But! If Krim wanted to put his own stamp on the Rock Hall, here are 10 ideas we came up with to get started. Here's hoping we look back on this transition as the dawning of a new age for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction process.

By most accounts, the 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony was a huge success that had some memorable speeches and performances. The Rock Hall's recent trend of having large induction classes is a necessary and positive move after years of honoring the bare minimum number of artists and the institution's general neglect of the special categories.

The only downside to large induction classes (if you can call it that) are the practical time constraints of the ceremony to honor all of these people. How do you properly create tributes to 14 inductees with video packages, induction speeches, acceptance speeches, and performances, all within a reasonable time limit? It's a difficult challenge for producers who are forced to make hard decisions about what to cut to shorten things up.

Unfortunately, at the 2022 ceremony the Rock Hall failed on even the basic minimum requirements for three of its inductees: Elizabeth Cotten, Harry Belafonte, and Sylvia Robinson. Similar to previous years, those inductees were honored with short video segments outlining the importance of their careers. But unlike every other inductee* in the history of the Rock Hall, there was not a designated person to officially "induct" them into the Hall of Fame. It's a huge missed opportunity to connect the inductees to contemporary artists and simply to welcome them into the institution. It's a troubling sign that the producers could dispose of this foundational tradition that makes the induction ceremonies special.

An absolute bare minimum ceremony segment for ALL inductees (living or dead, in attendance or not) should have the following:

• Video package describing the inductee's career
• Having someone say the words, "It's my honor to welcome [inductee] into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame"
• If the inductee is alive, they should be given the opportunity to give a speech

That's it! Adding on presenter speeches, tribute performances, or allowing family members to accept on a deceased inductee's behalf are all great too, and should happen if there's time, but are understandable to omit when there are other living, present inductees to get to. The fact that the Rock Hall decided to overlook this minimal requirement with these three inductees is extremely unfortunate, and hopefully isn't the beginning of a trend.

See also The Rock Hall's Shameful Treatment of Dire Straits from 2018