Well you can easily get the list of inducteed artists/musicians in the Rock’n Roll Hall of Fame along the years since its first inception back in 1986.
BUT don’t you wanna know who inducted and introduced them in the annual RnRHOF ceremony?
It is interesting, typically the young musician who are inspired by the inducted artist comes to the stage to pay tribute and welcome his/her/their hero into the Hall.
And to see how they introduce, praise, screams w
However it is not uncommon to have close friends of the inductee, or even ‘senior’ to induct them on the stage.
- Note :
Most of the names here (first ones) for each year fall into PERFORMER CATEGORY. Besides, we have non-performer category(producer, labels, manager, etc) – now it’s called Ahmed Ertegun Award, and early influences category (musician came from the very early as 1920-30′-40’s which predate rock’n roll)
1986
CHUCK BERRY : Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones)
BUDDY HOLLY : John Fogerty (CCR)
JERRY LEE LEWIS : Hank Williams Jr
ELVIS PRESLEY : Julian Lennon and Sean Lennon (sons of late John Lennon who is a very big fan of Elvis)
JAMES BROWN
SAM COOKE
FATS DOMINO
THE EVERLY BROTHERS Neil Young
ROBERT JOHNSON (early influences category)
SAM PHILLIPS (non performers category)
ALAN FREED Scott Muney and Norm Nite (non performers category)
1987
EDDIE COCHRAN
BO DIDDLEY : ZZ Top
ARETHA FRANKLIN : Keith Richards
MARVIN GAYE
BILL HALEY
B.B. KING
RICKY NELSON
ROY ORBISON
THE COASTERS
CLYDE MCPATTER
MUDDY WATERS
JACKIE WILSON
1988
THE BEATLES : Mick Jagger (Rolling Stones vocalist, whose band is portrayed by most media as the very big rival of Beatles in the 60’s, while it wasn’t actually like that, both band’s members are good friends to each other)
THE BEACH BOYS : Elton John
BOB DYLAN : Bruce Springsteen
OTIS REDING :
THE SUPREMES :
1989
THE ROLLING STONES : Pete Townsend
THE TEMPTATIONS :
STEVIE WONDERS :
DION : Lou Reed
THE DRIFTERS :
1990
THE KINKS: Graham Nash (Crosby, Still & Nash)
THE WHO: U2 (U2 was at the peak of popularity that time around. Bono began with funny story about ‘nose’ of rock stars, but somehow had his speech too long rambling about various things. Only at the last 1 minute he focused on The Who. I mean we can only have that just one minute and skipped the first 2 minutes. Larry paid tribute to Keith Moon and then The Edge close the speech and welcome The Who.)
THE PLATTERS
SIMON & GARFUNKEL : James Taylor
BOBBY DARIN : Paul Anka (Bobby Darin’s close friend, fellow musician)
THE FOUR SEASONS
FOUR TOP : Stevie Wonder
1991
THE BYRDS : Don Henley (Eagles)
THE IMPRESSIONS
JOHN LEE HOOKERS
JIMMY REED
WILSON PYCKETT
HOWLIN WOLF ROCK : Robert Cray
1992
JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE : Neil Young
THE YARDBIRDS : The Edge
JOHNY CASH : : Lyle Lovett
SAM AND DAVE : Billy Joel
BOBBY “BLUE” BAND : B.B. KING
1993
CREAM : ZZ Top
CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL (CCR) : Bruce Springsteen
ETTA JAMES : KD Lang
RUTH BROWN : Bonnie Raitt
THE DOORS : Eddie Vedder
1994
GRATEFUL DEAD : Bruce Horsnby
THE ANIMALS : Dave Pirner (Soul Asylum, alt-rock 90’s band)
WILLIE DIXON : Chuck Berry
THE BAND : Eric Clapton
BOB MARLEY : Bono
ELTON JOHN : Axl Rose
JOHN LENNON : Paul McCartney
1995
THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND : Willie Nelson
NEIL YOUNG : Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam)
JANIS JOPLIN : Melissa Etheridge
LED ZEPPELIN : Steven Tyler and Joe Perry (Aerosmith)
Both bands have members who are not much different of age (both Tyler and Plant were born at 1948), but Zeppelin preceded Aerosmith in musical career, not to mention Page had been popular even by the middle of 60’s.
FRANK ZAPPA : Lou Reed (The Velvet Underground)
1996
PINK FLOYD : The Smashing Pumpkins
DAVID BOWIE : David Byrne
LITTLE WILLIE JOHN : Stevie Wonder
THE SHIRELLES : Marianne Faithful, Merry Clayton, Darlene Love
GLADYS NIGHT AND THE PIPS : Mariah Carey
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE : Phil Lesh and Mickey Hart
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND : Patty Smith
PETE SEEGER : Harry Belafonte and Arlo Guthrie (early influence category)
1997
BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD : Tom Petty
BEE GEES : Brian Wilson (Beach Boys)
CROSBY, STILL, & NASH : James Taylor
JONI MITCHELL : (sadly the voice of angel didn’t attend the ceremony)
JOHNY CASH : Lyle Lovett (American country singer and songwriter)
PARLIAMENT FUNKAHOLIC : Prince
MICHAEL JACKSON : Nsync (Justin Timberlake)
1998
EAGLES : Jimmy Buffett (American musician and songwriter)
FLEETWOOD MAC: Sheryl Crow (Mac is Crow’s youth hero, very inspired that if you compared their catalogs, they’re in rhyme, American pop music taste. And at the time Sheryl Crow is on her peak, so it is marriage in heaven)
SANTANA:s
LLOYD PRICE:
THE MAMAS AND THE PAPAS:
GENE VINCENT:
1999
PAUL MCCARTNEY : Neil Young
THE STAPLE SINGERS : Lauryn Hill
BILLY JOEL : Ray Charles
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN : Bono
CURTIS MAYFIELD:
2000
ERIC CLAPTON : Robbie Robertson
THE LOVIN’ SPOONFUL : John Mellencamp
This occasion marks one of very rare John Sebastian reunited with his old bandmates. He is known for stay away from any Lovin’ Spoonfull reunion, despite no bad blood.
EARTH, WIND, & FIRE
JAMES TAYLOR
THE MOONGLOWS
2001
QUEEN : Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters)
PAUL SIMON : Marc Anthony
RITCHIE VALENS
SOLOMON BURKE : Mary J. Blige
STEELY DAN : Moby
JOHNIE JOHNSON JAMES BURTON : Keith Richards
2002
TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS : Jakob Dylan (Singer songwriter of The Wallflowers, son of Bob Dylan)
RAMONES : Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam) –> noticeably, Vedder got his hair cut into Tomahawk, Indian style at the ceremony
BRENDA LEE
ISAAC HAYES
GENE PITNEY
2003
AC/DC: Steven Tyler (Aerosmith)
Unlike that somehow boring speech when inducting Zeppelin 6 years ago, Tyler looked more enthusiastic when welcoming his counterparts in AC/DC.
THE CLASH: The Edge (U2)
THE POLICE: Gwen Stefani (American Singer of No Doubt – remember song “Don’t Speak”?)
ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTION:
THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS: Billy Joel
2004
GEORGE HARRISON : Tom Petty and Jeff Lyne (his close friends, bandmates in The Travelling Wilburys)
BOB SEGER : Kid Rock
PRINCE : Alicia Keys (she looked drunk but still she delivered an uplifting, sweet, teasing speech about Prince lol)
TRAFFIC : Dave Matthews (Dave Matthews Band)
A big fan of Traffic, Dave told story of how he first got listened to Traffic from his brother and bought their CD when he was a kid, listening to it over and over.
ZZ TOP : Keith Richards (one of rare occasion where ‘senior’, the older musician induct younger one into RRHoF)
2005
U2 : Bruce Springsteen (both Bono and Bruce are very close, esp for their political and society activities)
BUDDY GUY : BB King and Eric Clapton (perhaps his prominent ‘pupils’)
THE PRETENDERS : Neil Young
THE O’JAYS
PERCY SLEDGE : Rod Stewart (funny thing is, albeit due to sad reasons, Rod Stewart failed to appear on both himself and THe Faces induction. But he comes all the way to induct one of his inspiration)
2006
BLACK SABBATH : James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich (Metallica)
It seems like had been written on the wall that it will be Metallica who inducted Black Sabbath into the Hall. As the most prominent and popular metal band at this age, they get the honor to welcome the pioneer of metal music (although I have no problem if other current metal act like Slayer, Megadeth, Korn, Tool, etc inducted Sabbath, but this Rock’n Roll HOF is also about popularity and publicity, so the choosing of Metallica makes sense)
THE SEX PISTOLS : Jann Wenner (yes, it’s true! 😀 )
BLONDIE : Shirley Manson
LYNYRD SKYNYRD : Kid Rock
MILES DAVIES:
2007
VAN HALEN: The Velvet Revolver
R.E.M. : Eddie Vedder
THE RONETTES : Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones)
PATTY SMITH : Zack De La Rocha (vocalist of Rage Against the Machine)
GRANDMASTER FLASH AND THE FURIOUS FIVE
2008
THE DAVE CLARK FIVE : Tom Hanks
A strange occasion where a non-musician, even had very less to do with music on his career (he’s an actor if you don’t know :D). But he’s a very big fan of Dave Clark Five, so using an established famous fan to induct a classic musician who young music fans might never heard makes sense. But as expected, Tom’s strong speech rambling about various thing just like an actor (most parts are entertaining though) while we expect more story / admiration of DC5 from music perspective. Fortunately he avoided mentioning other band names (other British Invasion bands refer to him) otherwise his ramblings would be distracted. Overall it is a great passionate speech from Tom, just wish he told more about the musical aspects of DC5 rather than their popularity.
LEONARD COHEN : Lou Reed
Lou delivered a heartfelt speech to induct Cohen. In his short speech, he tells some stories about him as musician and as a person.
JOHN MELLENCAMP : Billy Joel (his fellow musician)
MADONNA : Justin Timberlake (there are too many singers out there inspired by Madonna..Justin is just one of her ‘pupil’, he really idolizes the queen of pop)
THE VENTURES
LITTLE WALTER : Ben Harper (Little Harper is the only musician inducted as harmonica player, he was inducted posthumously as the man has left us in 1968. Ben tells some ‘poetry’ quote. In the end Ben and James Cotton performed as a tribute to him, Ben sang and James played harmonica)
KENNY GAMBLE AND LEON HOFF –> Ahmed Ertegun Award (1st time of this award being given, replacing “Non Performer” award)
2009
JEFF BECK : Jimmy Page (both were perhaps kicked-off their career in The Yardbirds together – had been in bands before, but it was their time in Yardbirds that led them to fame – Jeff even went as far as saying he often jealous with the stardom Led Zeppelin had on the 70’s)
METALLICA : Flea (at some point looked like a weird choice, but Flea himself is a big Metallica fan so everything’s fine)
SPOONER OLDHAM : Paul Shaffer
BOBBY WOMACK : Ron Wood
RUN D.M.C. : Eminem
LITTLE ANTHONY & THE IMPERIALS : Smokey Robinson
2010
ABBA : Barry and Robin Gibb (Bee Gees) – this is sort of senior – junior thing which is rare, Bee Gees found the popularity by the 60’s while ABBA was rising near the middle of 70’s, but considering Benny and Bjorn started their music career also in the 60’s, they are counterparts (man, I expected Westlife boyband to inducted ABBA, they made “I Have A Dream” very famous again). Both bands were on the top of the world at the late 70’s on the pop disco-mania era, many says at that period you cannot go through a day without listening at least one ABBA and Bee Gees song lol 😀 )
GENESIS : Trey Anastasio of Phish (US alternative band)
THE STOOGES : Billy Joe Armstrong (Green Day) – Stooges may come as pioneer of punk rock, so sensibly one of punk rocker should induct him. Billy got the honor
THE HOLLIES
JIMMY RADCLIFF
2011
NEIL DIAMOND : Paul Simon
ALICE COOPER : Rob Zombie
TOM WAITS : Neil Young
LEON RUSSEL : Elton John
DARLENE JONES
DR. JOHN
2012
GUNS’N ROSES : Green Day (Billy, Tre, Mike)
Another weird choice since Green Day has nothing to do with the eighties rock music, more with the late 70’s punk scene. But we can’t forget it after listening to entertaining Billy Joe speech accompanied by some funny antics by his parters Mike and Tre. Just after praising Slash and before announcing Axl, he teased “Now, look who am I missing?” (conform to the event where Axl didn’t attend after an open letter to the Hall) which invited a loud boos from the audience to whom Billy had to made them quiet (“Shut the fuck up…shut up! This man’s is a kick ass inger”)
SMALL FACES – THE FACES: Stevie Van Zandt (Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band)
THE MIRACLES: Berry Gordy Jr (Motown)
RED HOT CHILLI PEPPERS: Chris Rock
BEASTIE BOYS: Chuck D (rapper)
DONOVAN:
2013
RUSH : Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters)
Perhaps one of the entertaining induction speech to induct one of the rock giant. At many points of his preaching, Dave could not contain himself especially when teasing the fans on the hall and mentioning all Rush albums consecutively
The HBO even had balls to upload Jann Wenner opening speech announcing every inductee at the 2013 event to YouTube (which is extremely rare), an in the end when he mentioned “..and from Toronto”, the arena looked like going to explode for the huge screaming to the roof, indicated how badly Rush had been ignored by that committee, to the amazed surprise of Rush members but especially Geddy Lee’s wife who cannot hide her excitement. Watch
PUBLIC ENEMY :
DONNA SUMMER:
RANDY NEWMAN:
HEART:
ALBERT KING:
2014 :
CAT STEVENS : Art Garfunkel
NIRVANA : Michael Stipe (R.E.M.)
KISS : Tom Morello (RATM, Audioslave)
THE E-STREET BAND : Bruce Springsteen (there’s only one person who must do the induction. Who else should be?)
LINDA RONSTADT: Glenn Frey (Glenn praised Linda as one of the most prominent female rock’n roll singer ever)
HALL & OATES: Questlove (a big fan of Hall & Oates, he told story about that duet’s influence on music over the years)
PETER GABRIEL: Chris Martin (Coldplay) who is a big fan of Genesis and Peter Gabriel’s music, one of his main inspiration. Funnily, he started and contain his speech by quoting from Genesis part of the Bible lol, mentioning “Angel Gabriel”, going solo, not to mention quoting some Genesis and Gabriel song titles to the amusement of the audience including Gabriel himself 😀
2015 :
GREEN DAY :
RINGO STARR : Paul McCartney (Beatles colleague)
Why we have to wait for so many years until the last member of the mighty Beatles got inducted? Paul indicated that on his speech to welcome the drummer, the oldest member of the Beatles (which many including me could not identify).
LOU REED: Patty Smith
THE PAUL BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND:
JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS
STEVE RAY VAUGHANN & THE DOUBLE TROUBLE:
BILL WITHERS:
2016:
DEEP PURPLE : Lars Ulrich (Metallica)
If anybody remembered when Ulrich bursted into “Deep Purple” words when Metallica was inducted previously into Rock’n Roll Hall of Fame and how he championed his childhood band to be inducted, then this choice seems very reasonable (although it’s easy to find other candidates as there almost no rock artists nowadays who didn’t get inspired by Deep Purple music less or more). And unlike when inducting Sabbath, he delivered a great narrative story telling, paid tribute to each inducted Purple members, which speech is contender to be the longest induction speech in the Hall.
CHICAGO : Rob Thomas (Matchbox Twenty)
CHEAP TRICK : Kid Rock
N.W.A. :
STEVE MILLER: The Black Keys (American rock band)
2017
YES : Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson (Rush)
To induct the Godfather of Progressive Music, you need another progressive rock artist. It is a no brainer, difficult to see musician from other genre to come to induct Yes even if he/she is Yes big an.
And it’s glad to see Alex Lifeson has come to his sense during the speech lol 😀 , and not get burst into another bla bla bla moment. As he’s skilled to do, he did storytelling speech how
JOAN BAEZ : Jackson Browne
PEARL JAM : David Letterman (previously Neil Young)
Neil Young could have been logical to induct his juniors in Pearl Jam, as how close their relationship along the years. But as Neil Young was reported sick, then a replacement had to be searched. David Letterman came to the house, and despite he was not a musician, he delivers a great tribute to the band who had 10 times filled up his shows on TV.
JOURNEY : Pat Monahan (Train)
Until late of March 2017, it had not been revealed who will induct Journey (and also E.L.O. and Tupac Shakur). So it was a hard time to guess who will do that, because of how enormously popular Journey is (we would not be surprised if Mariah Carey, Adele, or Ed Sheeran is chosen to induct Journey). Then the news came, what a great time I had to realize that it is my favorite singer of my favorite band who will induct Journey and the almighty Steve Perry. The speech itself was less fanfare than Rob Thomas when inducting Chicago
ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA: Dani Harrison
This reflects the close collaboration between ELO man Jeff Lynne and Dani Harrison’s father, George Harrison of the Beatles during the 80’s and 90’s. Dani told a good story about his father’s work with Jeff and the great music of E.L.O.
TUPAC SHAKUR: Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg had an honor to take on his late friend and collaborator, rapper Tupac Shakur (who is the first solo rapper to be inducted into Rock’n Roll Hall of Fame)
Ride The Wind 