Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony has a poignant vibe this year

CLEVELAND (AP) — The Rock & Roll Hall Fame induction ceremony on Saturday night promises to be starry, jamming — and bittersweet. So many of the honorees this time have been lost.

Of the seven original members of Kool & the Gang, there is only one, Robert “Kool” Bell. There will be no living members of the MC5, which suffered the recent deaths of its two last original members, drummer Dennis “Machine Gun” Thompson and guitarist and singer Wayne Kramer. Foreigner’s original bassist Ed Gagliardi and multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald have died and guitarist Mick Jones has been sidelined by Parkinson’s disease. A Tribe Called Quest has lost Phife Dawg.

“I wish George was here and the rest of the other gentlemen — the other original members — because they well deserve this recognition,” said Hahn Brown, widow of Kool & the Gang drummer and songwriter George Brown, who died in 2023.

In many ways, the class of 2024 — which also includes Peter Frampton, Cher, Mary J. Blige, Ozzy Osbourne, Dave Matthews Band, the late Jimmy Buffett, Dionne Warwick and the late Alexis Korner, the late John Mayall and the late Big Mama Thornton — is a catch-up class, reflecting turnover in the hall’s leadership.

“There’s been a change over from some of the old guard in years past to you see artists like Rush and Kiss and Stevie Ray Vaughan and Randy Rhodes, the MC5 and Judas Priest getting in. Whereas before that might not have been the case,” says Tom Morello, a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame guitarist for bands like Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave.

Morello recalls bringing up the issue of membership with Jon Landau, Bruce Springsteen’s manager and a former Rolling Stone critic, who was then chairman of the nominating committee.

He told him: “Myself and my friends, we don’t think so much about the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame because none of our favorite bands are in it.”

Now it will have a band Morello has long championed, the MC5, who paved the way for the Stooges, the Ramones, the Clash, the Sex Pistols, Rage Against the Machine and System of a Down.

Saturday’s induction ceremony will be held at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland. It will stream live on Disney+. A special featuring performance highlights and standout moments will air on ABC on Jan. 1.

Cher — the only artist to have a No. 1 song in each of the past six decades — and Blige, with eight multi-platinum albums and nine Grammy Awards, will help boost the number of women in the Hall, which critics say is too low.

Artists must have released their first commercial recording at least 25 years before they’re eligible for induction. Nominees were voted on by more than 1,000 artists, historians and music industry professionals.

There had been a starry push to get Foreigner — with the hits “Urgent” and “Hot Blooded” — into the Hall, with Mark Ronson, Jack Black, Slash, Dave Grohl and Paul McCartney all publicly backing the move. Ronson’s stepfather is Mick Jones, Foreigner’s founding member, songwriter and lead guitarist.

Warwick will arrive at the ceremony only a few days after attending a memorial to her longtime friend and collaborator, Cissy Houston, in Newark, New Jersey. Jennifer Hudson and Teyana Taylor will help induct her.

Other members of rock, pop and hip-hop royalty will be on hand to help usher the class in, including Busta Rhymes, Dr. Dre, Demi Lovato,Dua Lipa, Ella Mai, James Taylor, Jelly Roll, Julia Roberts, Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Lucky Daye, Mac McAnally, Method Man, Roger Daltrey, Sammy Hagar, Slash and The Roots.

Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press