IRON MAIDEN, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE and SOUNDGARDEN are among the nominees for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame‘s Class Of 2023. The top vote-getters will be announced in May and inducted in the fall. Fan voting is open HERE and you cn see the current standings of votes for each nominee AT THIS LOCATION.
“This remarkable list of Nominees reflects the diverse artists and music that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame honors and celebrates,” said John Sykes, chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Foundation. “These artists have created their own sounds that have impacted generations and influenced countless others that have followed in their footsteps.”
To be eligible for this year’s ballot, each nominee’s first single or album had to have been released in 1998 or earlier. Eight of the nominees (Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, JOY DIVISION/NEW ORDER, Cyndi Lauper, George Michael, Willie Nelson, THE WHITE STRIPES and Warren Zevon) are on the ballot for the first time.
This is the fifth nomination for RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, the fourth for Kate Bush and THE SPINNERS, and the second for IRON MAIDEN and A TRIBE CALLED QUEST.
The full list of nominees are:
- Kate Bush
- Sheryl Crow
- Missy Elliott
- IRON MAIDEN
- JOY DIVISION/NEW ORDER
- Cyndi Lauper
- George Michael
- Willie Nelson
- RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
- SOUNDGARDEN
- THE SPINNERS
- A TRIBE CALLED QUEST
- THE WHITE STRIPES
- Warren Zevon
The 2023 class will be chosen by a group of over 1,000 artists, historians, and members of the music industry the Rock Hall has selected as voters. Rock Hall rules state that artists become eligible a quarter century after their first records were released, but the Hall also claims that other “criteria include the influence and significance of the artists’ contributions to the development and perpetuation of rock ‘n’ roll,” which is, of course, open to interpretation.
Even though artists are eligible for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame 25 years after the release of their first album or single, iconic hard rock and metal groups like MAIDEN and MOTÖRHEAD have yet to be recognized by the institution, which inducted GUNS N’ ROSES in that band’s first year of eligibility. Eligible for induction since 1999, KISS didn’t get its first nomination until 2009, and was finally inducted in 2014.
IRON MAIDEN‘s members that will potentially be inducted are Clive Burr, Paul Di’Anno, Bruce Dickinson, Janick Gers, Steve Harris, Nicko McBrain, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, and Dennis Stratton.
Less than four years ago, IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris said that he didn’t care that his band had yet to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame despite the fact that it had been eligible since 2004. MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson made headlines in 2018 when he referred to the Rock Hall as “an utter and complete load of bollocks” during a spoken-word gig in Australia, insisting that the Cleveland-based institution is “run by a bunch of sanctimonious bloody Americans who wouldn’t know rock and roll if it hit them in the face.”
