HBO has released the official trailer for the 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. The broadcast of highlights of the Nov. 5 event premieres on the network on Nov. 19. It will also be available to stream on HBO Max. Pat Benatar, Judas Priest, and Carly Simon were among the long-overlooked artists who were selected for this year’s honor. The class included a whopping 14 inductees, with such stars as Duran Duran, Dolly Parton, Eurythmics, Eminem and Lionel Richie.
The 2022 ceremony featured a marked return to the participation of big names to the festivities with such stars as Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Sheryl Crow, The Edge, and younger acts like Olivia Rodrigo. The event was held in Los Angeles, at the Microsoft Theater. John Sykes, chairman of the Rock Hall Foundation, which oversees the induction process, has previously said that the induction ceremonies will rotate between Cleveland, New York and Los Angeles. Watch the official trailer below.
Parton had initially requested that she be removed from consideration. Six weeks later, however, she said that if chosen, “I’ll accept gracefully.” As she noted in her acceptance speech, “I’m a rock star now!”
Watch the official trailer for the HBO broadcast
The public also cast votes for their choice in an online process that concluded April 29. The results: Duran Duran led with more than 934,000 votes. Eninem was a distant second with 684,000, narrowly edging Benatar who finished with 631,000. Eurythmics, with 442K, and Parton at 393K rounded out the top five.
Narrowly missing the top were Judas Priest with nearly 366,000 votes and Carly Simon with 335K.
However, the fan vote is essentially meaningless. The “top five artists,” says the Hall, “will comprise a ‘fans’ ballot’ that will be tallied along with the other ballots.” Translation: they each received one vote that was counted among the Rock Hall’s larger pool of more than 1,000 voters.
Benatar’s selection also includes her musical partner (and husband) Neil Giraldo.
We are thrilled and humbled to become part of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame family. Thank you to everyone who voted especially the fans and congratulations to all the other inductees. – Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo pic.twitter.com/I1pElg83UR
— Benatar and Giraldo (@benatargiraldo) May 4, 2022
Related: Duran Duran’s acceptance speech was particularly bittersweet
The Class of 2022 also included selections for the Early Influence Award (Harry Belafonte, guitarist Elizabeth Cotten) as well as the Musical Excellence category (producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis). In addition, veteran music executives were chosen to receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award, given to non-performing industry professionals (producer Jimmy Iovine, attorney Allen Grubman, and label executive Sylvia Robinson).
Lionel Richie wrote, “Being elected to @rockhall is an incredible honor. I would like to say THANK YOU to all of the voters, to all of my wonderful fans and to everyone at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Congratulations to all of my fellow 2022 inductees!”
Judas Priest’s induction also came under the Musical Excellence category. When the news of their selection was announced, the band wrote, “We are thrilled and honored to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame 2022. This is also a great moment for British Heavy Metal, Metal worldwide and our amazing fans who support us and keep flying the flag for Metal and Judas Priest!”
Seven out of 17 of the nominees were on the ballot for the first time, including Beck, Eminem, Duran Duran, Parton, Richie, Simon, and A Tribe Called Quest. This was Eminem’s first year of eligibility.
Parton, who had earlier asked for her nomination to be withdrawn but later changed her mind, wrote that she was “honored and humbled.”
Nominated this year, but not selected: Beck, New York Dolls, Rage Against the Machine, Fela Kuti, Dionne Warwick, Kate Bush, MC5, and A Tribe Called Quest.
Among the scores of deserving acts who continue to be ignored by the secret selection committee are such classic rock legends as Bad Company, Jethro Tull, Peter Frampton, Warren Zevon, Iron Maiden and Joe Cocker. Meat Loaf and Michael Nesmith of the Monkees, both of whom died recently, are among the many other deserving acts who can now only be inducted posthumously.
The nominees are determined each year by a small group of music insiders made up of artist managers, booking agents, musicians, journalists, radio programmers, label executives, and others. Some of the more familiar names are Jon Landau, Steven Van Zandt, Anthony DeCurtis, Dave Grohl and Paul Shaffer.
Each new class is selected by an international voting body of more than 1,000 artists, including current living Inductees, historians and members of the music industry, as well as that all-important, single “fan vote.”
Factors such as an artist’s musical influence on other artists, length and depth of career and the body of work, innovation, and superiority in style and technique are taken into consideration.
Related: 100 crucial omissions to the Rock Hall
In order to be eligible, an artist must have made their first recording 25 years prior to the current year.
Related: A Rock and Roll Hall of Fame cynic visits the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
In recent years, the Rock Hall has inducted many core rock bands that it had overlooked for decades. Notably, the Doobie Brothers were in the Class of 2020 (alongside such non-rock acts as Whitney Houston and the Notorious B.I.G.). In 2019, it was Def Leppard and the Zombies’ turn, with Stevie Nicks as a solo artist. 2018 saw the Moody Blues, the Cars, Bon Jovi and Dire Straits join the fold. Yes, the Electric Light Orchestra and Journey were all members of the Class of 2017. Todd Rundgren, Carole King, Tina Turner, the Go-Go’s and the Foo Fighters led the Class of 2021.
Related: 100 more crucial Rock Hall omissions
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15 Comments
Dolly Parton, but not Jethro Tull? What are we talking about?
Well, we certainly arent talking more than deserving musicians!!! From what Ive read multiple times, various sources, many were kept out thanks to Jann Wenner.. ex:the Monkees.. they did start as a bunch thrown togeether, but learned to play for themselves, and were cohesive. And IMO, Doly is not Rock.Shes COUNTRY.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…the R&R HOF is the biggest joke of them all! So many people who should be in Halls of the genres they are known for, NOT THIS ONE! And the list of “industry professionals” should be fired or tossed on their collective asses out the door They’re a joke as well. Just admit you all are wrong and rename the Hall “The Everything Musical Counts Hall of Fame”. You’re welcome!
The only one i voted for this year was Carly Simon. What a shame that Waren Zevon, Jethro Tull and Emerson, Lake and Palmer have been overlooked again.
This ridiculous. Would Pat Benatar or Judas Priest be nominated for a Soul Train or an Essence award?
Right on JennyB! Given that the R&RHOF is an I-don’t-really-see-the-point joke, but shouldn’t their nominees at least be able to play or sing? I’m mean the New York Dolls, fer cryin out loud! I guess the make up and being from NYC makes them eligible. But honestly, how many people outside of NYC even knew who they were? But at least they’re one nominee who at least attempted to play R&R. Granted, they played it like my band did in fifth grade.
How can Jethro Tull not be nominated but Dolly Parton can be nominated? She is a country music artist and is inducted in the country music hall of fame. Ridiculous!
Agree 100% very talented but is a Country singer not a Rock and Roll singer!!!!
Pleased that Carly Simon has finally been considered for the Hall…She might not get in but at least there is a shot. Pat Benatar, was nominated 2 years ago and was thought to be a sure thing with 2nd in total fan votes(which really is meaningless)….Instead it was non-rock performer Whitney Houston who got in instead…Maybe this year will be Benatar’s turn….
Elated that Simon has been elected to the hall as a first time nominee….This year’s selection seems to be something for everyone and finally Benatar is in….I know everyone cannot be pleased but this year (as well as last) have been good selections for the Hall.
The Hall (won’t refer to this absurdity as Rock N’ Roll) because any institution that would enshrine LL Cool J and Dolly Parton prior to inducting the likes of Peter Frampton, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Ozzy, Judas Priest and Soundgarden surely is not only misguided but has ulterior motives and harbors grudges!!! Someone needs to show them the way of the common man because when this crazy train considers Dolly and LL (apologies to them) worthy ahead of the rest there’s something wrong in this galaxy because the world revolves around the black hole sun not the hall!!!!
No Monkees, no Paul Revere and the Raiders, no Jethro Tull–but we have Tupac, NWA, and Madonna in there, so I guess that makes everything all right. (The preceding was satire, folks.) This is a travesty. The RRHOF is a bad joke. It makes me sick.
Tull gets no consideration at all, year after year. And Maiden will probably fall to that category now that RRHOF knows they’d decline the nomination. The Hall is well deserving of all the mockery it receives.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ???
What a Joke – Although, it did have integrity when it began, as an idea by Ahmet Ertegun back in 1983, and for the first 10-15 years or so.
I could go on a diatribe for hours, on the hundreds of worthy glaring omissions, each of which are more deserving than certain specific inductees (fill in blank) over the past twenty years or so.
Be honest Jann Wenner (and I was an annual subscriber to Rolling Stone throughout the 1970s and until the early 1990s) –
Just change the name to “Anything That Can Be Recorded and Make Me A Buck” Hall of Fame.
More like the Hall of Shame/Mistake-By-The-Lake (apologies to the city of Cleveland itself)
A bunch of Americans are nominated as usual. Why no Kate Bush!? She is as important to rock music as any of those people selected, and more inventive, unique and wonderful too.