This year, the annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony took place in Cleveland! I do believe this is the first time (at least in a very long time) that this has happened and who knows, maybe it will never happen again. All I knew was that with this particular class, I wanted to be in attendance.
The night was full of awesome performances and some awesome guest appearances, but the evening started with Taylor Swift singing a tribute to inductee, Carole King. Swift is not my favorite, but seeing King beam in the crowd was pretty adorable. Jennifer Hudson also paid tribute in the form of the Aretha Franklin hit that King penned, “I Feel Like a Natural Woman.” Then King herself took the stage! From the sounds of it, this may be her last live performance ever, and she sounded great!
The next big block was dedicated to inductee LL Cool J, who was given his flowers by Dr. Dre. LL was clearly so honored to be there and had an infectious smile on his face for the whole ceremony. After they played his pre-recorded package, he took the stage to deliver a thumping medley-type performance, which saw the likes of surprise guests Eminem and Jennifer Lopez join him onstage. Of course, he ended it with “Mama Said Knock You Out” which had the crowd losing their minds. This kind of music isn’t my dad’s taste, so he was just sort of boggled by LL’s performance, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Now, Tina Turner wasn’t at the ceremony to accept her award in person, but I really grew a newfound respect from her while watching her package. All Tina wanted to do was become a rock star, and she did that while also having other bonafied rock stars grovel at her feet. What a talent! And it’s clear her influence is wide and deep because she had H.E.R., Keith Urban, Micky Guyton, and Christina Aguilera all perform tribute songs. I almost wish I could have seen Turner perform herself, but I’ll take what I can get.
Next up was a perhaps long-overdue induction of the punk band, The Go-Go’s. You heard me right: punk band. That’s what their pre-recorded package taught me. I’ve only ever known their pop hits, and as catchy as they are, I sort of wrote them off a little bit for that. No more! Couple that with the fact that they rocked so hard on that stage, they definitely made a new fan in me. They all sounded magnificent singing hits, “Vacation,” “Our Lips are Sealed,” and “We’ve Got the Beat.” They also seemed so smitten during their acceptance speech, where bassist Kathy Valentine made a great point about not enough females being inducted into the Rock Hall, saying “There would not be less of us if more of us were visible.” Here’s to a future that is female!
Jay-Z’s induction was perhaps the lamest of the bunch, and I’m even comparing that to the short little segments we got for the deceased inductees. Perhaps the only nice surprise was seeing that Dave Chappelle was going to be the one inducting Jay-Z into the hall. That sincere speech was followed by the pre-recorded package and then a spoken word version of some of his hits by some serious A-listers, but again, in a pre-recorded format. Afterwards, Jay-Z went up to collect his prize and he truly seemed honored, but at over three hours into the show I was pretty bored and rather antsy during his whole segment. And not that I’m a huge Beyoncé fan, I at least expected to see her there!
Finally, the show ended with the band that I think the audience was most excited to see: Foo Fighters. Even Paul McCartney, who was chosen to induct the band seemed really awed by the honor. Naturally, the Foos killed their three-song set and then kept their acceptance speeches rather brief without missing anyone. In order to end the night on a high, of course Paul joined them for the final song of the evening. In lieu of an actual Foo Fighters show this year, this certainly sated me. Hopefully we’ll get a full-fledged tour next year, but in the meantime I was glad I got to hear some of the hits!
Aside from all of the live acts, there were those handful of artists who were inducted posthumously, including guitarist Randy Rhoads, electronic icons Kraftwerk, Rolling Stones’ drummer Charlie Patton, and Gil Scott-Heron. They all received the standard package detailing their musical history, but it was fun to see other well-known artists gush over these incredible influencers. Inductee Todd Rundgren also received a video package because he was busy playing a concert in Cincinnati that night, but he’d also made it clear in the past that he’s not a fan of the Rock Hall. Probably because they’ve snubbed him about two decades longer than they should have. Thankfully my dad saw him in concert the previous night, because Rundgren’s induction was one of the main reasons we went!
Overall, the show was an absolute blast and a once in a lifetime experience. I mean, I secretly hope I can go to more, but you never know what the future holds. It was a truly great class that got inducted this year with a spectacular ceremony to honor all of them. To music!