When Pearl Jam was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017, bassist Jeff Ament shouted out a number of bands he felt were deserving of the honor during his acceptance speech. In particular, Ament mentioned “Roxy Music, The Jam, Devo, X, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Jane’s Addiction, and so many others -- all worthy.”

The “so many others” that Ament mentioned in the speech were listed on his t-shirt (most also appear on our own Snub List):

Since he wore that shirt two years ago, Ament should be pleased that quite a few of the 97 artists he listed have been nominated and/or inducted:

Brian Eno Can Buzzcocks The Cars (inducted in 2018) Slayer Faith No More Fela Kuti Alice In Chains Flipper Gang of Four Grand Funk Railroad Guided By Voices Mötley Crüe Hüsker Dü Iron Maiden Jane's Addiction Joe Jackson New York Dolls B-52s Jonathon Richman Kate Bush (nominated in 2018) King Crimson Duran Duran Love Lenny Kravitz The Cult Dinosaur Jr. King Diamond Minor Threat Minutemen Misfits The Monkees Motörhead

Mountain Mudhoney Nick Cave Nina Simone (inducted in 2018) Nine Inch Nails PJ Harvey Richard Hell T. Rex Roxy Music (inducted in 2019) Judas Priest (nominated in 2018) The Sonics Soundgarden Steppenwolf The Damned Hipgnosis Thin Lizzy Waterboys Bad Brains Dead Kennedys Bauhaus The Replacements Pixies The Black Crowes Black Flag Big Star Billy Idol Björk Bon Jovi (inducted in 2018) Smashing Pumpkins Blue Öyster Cult Pil Melvins Fugazi

Dio Elliott Smith Psychedelic Furs X Free New Order Tom Waits (previously inducted in 2011) Emerson, Lake & Palmer The Jam The Smiths Descendents Kraftwerk Sonic Youth Todd Rundgren (nominated in 2019) Ted Nugent The Cure (inducted in 2019) MC5 (nominated in 2018 & 2019) Captain Beefheart Warren Zevon Link Wray Weather Report Devo (nominated in 2019) Flaming Lips Nick Drake Harry Nilsson Neu! Chad Channing Sweet Raymond Pettibon Oasis Bad Company

There have been a total of twelve artists inducted in the performer category in the last two years, five of whom appear on Ament’s list. Another five were nominated in 2018 or 2019 but didn’t make the cut. It’s worth keeping an eye on this list to see if it will be a road map for the Nominating Committee in the coming years.

[Props to Jeff Ament for shining a light on the Rock Hall’s huge backlog problem.]

The 2017 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony took place on Friday, April 7th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The Induction Schedule (begins at 7:15 PM):

1. Chuck Berry Tribute (ELO performs “Roll Over Beethoven”)
2. Electric Light Orchestra (“Evil Woman”, “Mr. Blue Sky”; Inducted by Dhani Harrison)
3. Joan Baez (Inducted by Jackson Browne; “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” - solo; “Deportees”, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” - with Mary Chapin Carpenter & Indigo Girls)
4. Yes (Inducted by Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson; “Roundabout” - with Geddy Lee; “Owner of a Lonely Heart”)
5. 2Pac (Inducted by Snoop Dogg; "Ambitionz Az a Ridah," "I Get Around," "I Ain't Mad at Cha" and "Dear Mama" medley by Alicia Keys; “Americaz Most Wanted” with Snoop Dogg and YG; “Hail Mary” with T.I. and Treach; “Keep Your Head Up”)
6. Journey (Inducted by Pat Monahan; “Separate Ways”, “Lights”, “Don’t Stop Believin” - with Arnel Pineda)
7. Nile Rodgers (Inducted by Pharrell; no performance)
8. In Memoriam
9. Lenny Kravitz’s Prince Tribute (“When Doves Cry”, “The Cross”)
10. Pearl Jam (Inducted by David Letterman; “Alive” - with Dave Krusen; “Given to Fly”, “Better Man”)
11. All-Star Jam (“Rockin’ in the Free World”)

The show ended around 12:05 AM.

The 2017 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees were officially announced on December 20th, five days after votes were due. The Rock Hall announced six inductees in the Performer category and one Musical Excellence inductee:

Performers:

• Electric Light Orchestra
  
• Joan Baez
  
• Journey
  
• Pearl Jam
  
• Tupac Shakur
  
• Yes
  

Musical Excellence:

• Nile Rodgers

Inductees will be honored at the Induction Ceremony in Brooklyn on April 7, 2017.

Dave Grohl has a long history with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In addition being inducted as a member of Nirvana in 2014, he has given induction speeches for Queen in 2001 and Rush in 2013. At the 2015 induction ceremony, he performed with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts and with Ringo Starr during the all-star jam. Grohl was instrumental in getting Ringo inducted that year in the Musical Excellence category, despite not formally being on the Nominating Committee.

McCartney:"I said, 'Let me see what I can do. And I talked to Bruce and I talked to Dave Grohl, and they both said he should be in."

— Future Rock Legends (@futurerocklgnds) March 25, 2015

Soon after the 2017 Rock Hall ballot was announced, Perry Ferrell revealed that Grohl told him he was responsible for getting Jane’s Addiction nominated. That led us to speculate that the Bad Brains nomination had Grohl’s fingerprints all over it as well.

So now Dave Grohl gets credit for getting @JanesAddiction on the ballot. It also seems likely that he was involved in the Bad Brains nom too

— Future Rock Legends (@futurerocklgnds) October 19, 2016

Yesterday, Rolling Stone published a story about Bad Brains where H.R. confirmed that it was indeed Grohl that pushed their case.

As with other newly added Nominating Committee members such as Tom Morello and Questlove, Grohl was immediately successful in getting his picks directly on to the ballot (Nominating Committee members supposedly put forward two names each). Fresh voices seem to carry a lot of weight with the Committee, so Grohl may be most successful early in his tenure. With his experience on the Sonic Highways documentary series, he’s sure to have a long list of artists he wants to join him in the Hall of Fame.

Dave Grohl: "If anyone deserves to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it’s Lemmy." Motörhead -- eligible since '02. http://bit.ly/6UErki

— Future Rock Legends (@futurerocklgnds) January 6, 2010

The chances we will see artists like Motörhead, Minor Threat, Pixies or Fugazi on future ballots just went way up.

The majority of the 800+ member Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Voting Committee is comprised of the 449 living inductees. The average inductee / voter is a white male about 69 years old (Don Henley, Ron Wood, Iggy Pop, Elton John and Sammy Hagar all fit this profile). The rest of the Voting Committee is a mostly anonymous group of artists, historians and members of the music industry. Presumably, this group is slightly younger and more diverse than the inductees, but that is just speculation based on the small number of voters who have been discovered.

In recent years it has been difficult for “younger” artists who aren’t transcendent first ballot-types to get inducted. Titans of the 80s and 90s such as Nine Inch Nails, the Cure, the Replacements, the Smiths, Janet Jackson and LL Cool J have all made appearances on the ballot, but haven’t been welcomed into the Rock Hall yet. Voters have been far more likely to induct their peers of the 1960s than their musical progeny.

Future Rock Legends predicts the five inductees of the Rock Hall class of 2017 will be:

• Pearl Jam - A true first ballot Hall of Famer. This has been a foregone conclusion for over 20 years, back when Eddie Vedder performed with the Doors on the Rock Hall stage.
• Electric Light Orchestra - Jeff Lynne is the only member of the Traveling Wilburys who isn’t in the Hall of Fame, but only because E.L.O. had never been nominated until this year. Given his career and the respect he holds in the industry, he should coast into Cleveland now that he’s finally been given the opportunity.
• Joan Baez - Like Cat Stevens and Leonard Cohen before her, Baez will likely be inducted after finally debuting on the ballot (eligible for 31 years!). Also if Baez gets in, there’s the potential to get a certain Nobel laureate back to the induction ceremony.
• Journey - Sure, the fan poll winner has been inducted every time, but that doesn’t mean that it is guaranteed. However, Journey fits in nicely with last year’s AOR-friendly class and should have enough megahits to get the nod. Fans hoping for a Steve Perry reunion at the induction ceremony should remember the Rock Hall has an abysmal record negotiating these things.
• Chic - The Rock Hall nominated 19 artists this year, the most since 1990. We’re guessing that Chic could benefit from a diluted ballot, where it will only takes about 1/3 of the voters to get an artist into the top five.

A quick note about some of the other artists on the ballot... Tupac is one of Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Artists, but like Nine Inch Nails, the generation gap might be too big to overcome this year... The Rock Hall voters have previously rejected Kraftwerk, Janet Jackson, MC5, The Cars, Yes, The Zombies, Chaka Khan, Joe Tex and The J. Geils Band. Given that they gravitate towards the fresher names on the ballot, it will be tough for one of these artists to get over the top... It’s truly remarkable that Bad Brains was nominated this year, but don’t expect to see them back on the ballot anytime soon... If there happen to be six performer inductees, we’ll predict the J. Geils Band will slip in... By pulling artists off of the Performer ballot and inducting them in other categories (Freddie King, Wanda Jackson), the Rock Hall has previously demonstrated their lack of respect for the process. Keep an eye out for what they might do in the other categories this year.

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For ten years we have been conducting our own unofficial poll here which, unlike the official Rock Hall poll, requires voters to select five artists on their ballot. The results (after 2166 ballots):

1. Kraftwerk 41%
2. Depeche Mode 41%
3. E.L.O. 38%
4. Pearl Jam 37%
5. Janet Jackson 35%
6. MC5 31%
7. Bad Brains 31%
8. The Cars 30%
9. Chic 29%
10. 2Pac 28%
11. Yes 28%
12. Joan Baez 24%
13. Journey 24%
14. The Zombies 20%
15. Jane’s Addiction 13%
16. Steppenwolf 13%
17. Chaka Khan 13%
18. Joe Tex 12%
19. The J. Geils Band 11%

For the record, the top five in the official Rock Hall fan poll were Journey, E.L.O., Yes, Pearl Jam and The Cars.

The Rock Hall Induction Ceremony will take place on Friday, April 7 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

After last year’s epic fan poll debacle, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame tried to fix things this year. They outsourced the fan poll to Votem, a “revolutionary mobile voting platform,” that makes bold promises on its website:

Multifactor authentication ensures votes are cast legitimately, while top-of-the-line encryption protects fan voter privacy and anonymity.

Featuring 100% accuracy and transparency throughout the entire fan vote process, Votem removes any potential for human error or controversy caused by miscounting or mishandling votes.

Well, after a relatively uneventful first six weeks of voting, today the Rock Hall made up for lost time by releasing over 575,000 new votes today that were “cached in the voting system.” They also arbitrarily decided to extend the voting deadline by 10 days to December 15th.

The Rock Hall updated the vote totals after an internal “audit,” likely prompted by a tweet from Journey which suggested the poll may have been “hacked” after their lead over E.L.O. shrank from 5,000 votes to 2,000 votes over the course of a week.

Don't know what happened but this appears to have been hacked or taken down.
We were 5k in lead and now 2k
Vote... https://t.co/1MdobRqcKL

— JOURNEY (@JourneyOfficial) November 28, 2016

What kind of polling operation holds onto 40% of votes for a month and then releases them all at once with little explanation? Certainly not one that supposedly features “100% accuracy and transparency.” This is the same “transparent” poll that didn’t show vote totals for over a week after voting started. This is the same poll that promises “voter privacy and anonymity,” but then sneakily registers you for the Rock Hall newsletter when you vote with your email address.

This is the same polling company that is supposed to “remove any potential for controversy.” (Did the Rock Hall actually pay for this service?)

As Steve Miller said about the Rock Hall back in the spring, “I think it’s time for the people running this to turn it over to new people, because it doesn’t need to be this difficult.”

Votem did not respond to questions regarding their poll methodology.

Update: The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame offered up additional details about the vote increase, also insisting that the poll had not been “hacked.” The Rock Hall shared their own graph of results for the month of November, which shows the extra votes distributed over the course of the month.

Iconic Rock Talk Show thinks this whole thing could have been handled better.

The Rock Hall announced the 2017 Nominees this morning.

• Bad Brains
  
• The Cars
  
• Chaka Khan
  
• Chic
  
• Depeche Mode
  
• Electric Light Orchestra
  
• Jane's Addiction
  
• Janet Jackson
  
• J. Geils Band
  
• Joan Baez
  
• Joe Tex
  
• Journey
  
• Kraftwerk
  
• MC5
  
• Pearl Jam
  
• Steppenwolf
  
• The Zombies
  
• Tupac Shakur
  
• Yes
  

Please vote in our fan poll!

Much more to come.