Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2013

11 Dec, 2012

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has officially announced next year’s inductees: Rush, Randy Newman, Public Enemy, Heart, Donna Summer and Albert King will all join the class of 2013, with Summer, who passed away this May, and King, who died in 1992, earning the honor posthumously. Lou Adler and Quincy Jones will both receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award for non-performers.

“It’s a terrific honor and we’ll show up smiling,” Rush’s singer and bassist, Geddy Lee, tells Rolling Stone. “It made my mom happy, so that’s worth it.” Lee is especially happy for Rush’s army of hardcore fans. “It was a cause they championed,” he says. “I’m very relieved for them and we share this honor with them, for sure.”

Public Enemy are only the fourth hip-hop act to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were inducted in 2007, Run-D.M.C. made it in in 2009 and the Beastie Boys received the honor last year.

Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart were also overjoyed to learn the news. “Some people have an idea of what the shape of rock & roll is supposed to look like,” says Ann Wilson. “We’re not really it. Personally, that’s why I think it’s taken quite a while . . . We’re always traveling and out there doing it. It can start to feel like you’re a tree falling in the forest, but nobody notices. So this kind of acknowledgement is really sweet.”

For Randy Newman, the news came as a shock. “I thought maybe I’d have to die before they let me in,” he says. “I’m really glad it happened when I was still around to see it . . . They’re always a little doctrinaire about what’s rock & roll and what isn’t rock & roll. It’s nice they opened up a little to let me in.”

The public was allowed to vote for the first time in the history of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. Votes were taken online, and the result was a “fan’s ballot” that was counted along with roughly 600 other ballots.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held on April 18th, 2013 at the Nokia Theater and broadcast on HBO May 18th. Tickets will go on sale to the public on January 25th.

Rolling Stone

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