Prior to its eventual cancellation due to the pandemic, the 2020 Induction Ceremony was supposed to be a cross-generational three hour celebration of this year's class, according to organizers Joel Gallen and Rick Krim. They outlined what the Hall of Fame had planned for the May ceremony during their appearance on the Who Cares About the Rock Hall? podcast.

Here are some highlights from their discussions on the podcast:

• Ceremony Scheduling: The Rock Hall considered a few options when it became clear that an in-person 2020 induction ceremony couldn't happen: 1) Bump the ceremony back to 2021, and slide all subsequent Rock Hall classes back a year. 2) Honor the 2020 class in the Spring and the 2021 class in the Fall. 3) Do both the 2020 and 2021 classes in a single week. According to Joel Gallen, "HBO came back and said that doing two shows in a week or even within a year was not an option — budget wise, schedule wise, all kinds of things. They said we can only do one show, but they still were open to us coming back to them with a version of this year's show that would be pandemic-friendly."
• Show Opening: The show was going to open with a six song medley honoring the performer inductees with Weezer as the house band. They intended to use Miley Cyrus for the Nine Inch Nails portion of the medley, Billy Idol and Billie Joe Armstrong for T. Rex, Lauryn Mayberry from Chvrches for Depeche Mode, and Weezer for the Doobie Brothers. No artists had been lined up for Notorious B.I.G. and Whitney Houston before the ceremony was postponed. Gallen wanted the opening medley to be performed outside in front of the Rock Hall museum, but costs were too high, so a turntable stage in Public Auditorium was going to be used.
• T. Rex: The opening medley would have concluded with "Bang a Gong" and then would have rolled into the video package. Billy Idol was lined up to give the induction speech and then likely would have performed "Jeepster" with Billie Joe Armstrong.
• Doobie Brothers: Gallen proposed a "cold open" for each performer segment with a different artist paying tribute to the inductee. For example, they had wanted The Chicks to perform "Black Water," but they weren't available in May because of their album release, so they were exploring other artists. Luke Bryan was booked to induct the band, and the Doobie Brothers would have performed.
• Depeche Mode: They didn't have anyone booked to do the opening, but they were trying to line up a particular female artist to do a stripped down performance. Charlize Theron was in discussions to be the presenter, but she hadn't committed. Depeche Mode would have performed.
• Nine Inch Nails: St. Vincent was booked to be the presenter and Nine Inch Nails was going to perform three songs.
• Whitney Houston: No presenter was confirmed because Alicia Keys had a conflict in May, but may have been available in November. Slated to perform were Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson and H.E.R. with a three song tribute backed by the Roots.
• Notorious B.I.G.: Diddy was set to be the presenter and The Roots would be the backing band for a performance. They had tried to get Jay-Z, but that was a long shot, and they didn't have anyone else booked at the time the ceremony was cancelled.
• 2021: There have been discussions about trying to include this year's living inductees (NIN, Doobies and Depeche Mode) into next year's ceremonies to allow them to have a moment to be honored.

Gallen claims he had the ceremony projected to last 2 hours 48 minutes on paper to fit within the three hour time limit HBO required, but given the history of past ceremonies and the ambitious schedule outlined above, that seems hard to imagine. Hopefully Gallen will be given the opportunity to try again next year.