2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction: The Best Moments

The thirty ninth annual Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame induction ceremony turned Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio, right into a “celebration” Saturday evening as Kool & the Gang, Dave Matthews Band, Mary J. Blige, A Tribe Referred to as Quest and Cher confirmed as much as settle for inductions from Chuck D, Julia Roberts, Methodology Man, Dr. Dre, Dave Chappelle and Zendaya. 

The occasion returned to the hometown of the Rock & Roll Museum for the primary time since 2021. This 12 months’s prime music-industry honor within the performer class went to Mary J. Blige, Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Kool & The Gang, Ozzy Osbourne and A Tribe Referred to as Quest. Musical Excellence Award honorees included Jimmy Buffett, MC5, Dionne Warwick and Norman Whitfield; Alexis Korner, John Mayall and Huge Mama Thornton obtained the Musical Affect Award. Motown government Suzanne de Passe obtained the Ahmet Ertegun Award — the fifth lady to simply accept the accolade.

4 out of the eight inductees within the performer class have been on the poll for the primary time: Cher, Foreigner, Kool & the Gang and Peter Frampton. 

“We’re swimming in deep water right here,” says Matthews of the category of 2024. 

The five-and-a-half-hour ceremony intertwined shifting speeches and profession spotlight reels with performances that repeatedly introduced the packed home to its ft. The occasion’s momentum builds across the shock of who will carry out with whom. This 12 months featured a mashup of inductees and people following of their iconic footsteps as Dua Lipa joined Cher, and Ella Mai and Fortunate Daye each dueted with Mary J. Blige. Kelly Clarkson, Demi Lovato, Chad Smith, Slash and Sammy Hagar fashioned a Foreigner supergroup, as did James Taylor, Mac McAnally and Kenny Chesney, to pay tribute to their late good friend Jimmy Buffet. Smith returned for the Ozzy Osbourne induction, taking part in with Maynard James Keenan, Jelly Roll, Billy Idol and extra. Jack Black did the honors for Osbourne, who took all of it in from a “bat” chair.

Beneath are the highest moments from the 2024 Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame induction, which is streaming now on Disney+ and airing Jan. 1 on ABC.

Cher’s Change of Coronary heart 

To kick begin the night, Dua Lipa took the stage in a protracted black leather-based costume hinged with delicate chains over fishnet stockings, belting Cher’s anthem “Consider.” Then Cher, in leather-based chaps, joined Dua, and the duo linked fingers triumphantly, hitting the refrain of the 1998 comeback track. Zendaya delivered Cher’s induction speech in a Bob Mackie nude-illusion halter costume that channeled one of many icon’s basic seems from 1975. The actress stated of the famous person, who had not obtained a Corridor of Fame nomination till this 12 months, “Cher has received the products,” drawing eyes to the stat that she is the one solo artist to have a No. 1 hit in every of the final seven a long time and calling her “the best lady on the planet.” Cher’s video tribute reel featured soundbites from Tina Turner, Cyndi Lauper and Pink.

Cher started her acceptance speech by addressing the elephant within the room: “It was simpler getting divorced from two males than it was getting within the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame.” She has been outspoken about being missed for thus a few years by the group, telling Kelly Clarkson in 2022, “I wouldn’t be in it now in the event that they gave me one million {dollars}.”

She had a change of coronary heart and thanked David Geffen for taking the award to the end line: “I need to thank my guardian, David Geffen, as a result of he wrote a letter and despatched it to the administrators, and so right here I’m. Thanks, David. Thanks for caring a lot about me.”

All through the handle, her theme was resilience. She detailed her profession’s ups and downs and maintained a way of delight and self-worth not primarily based on being the prettiest, smartest or most gifted within the room.

“I’m speaking to the ladies,” she added. “We’ve been down and out, and we maintain striving and we maintain going and we maintain constructing and we’re any person. We’re particular.”

Chuck D’s Kool-Pentameter

The Public Enemy frontman inducted a bunch lengthy missed by the Rock Corridor of Fame, Kool & the Gang. D’s speech was pure poetry within the rhythm of “Kool,” a soulful, funky riff of verbal reward. 

He famous that “few artists have been sampled by hip-hop producers greater than Kool & the Gang” and “let it’s recognized: it is a long-overdue celebration,” noting that, “Y’all know the deal, birthdays, weddings, sports activities, championships. Y’all know the drill … The get right down to the get right down to the get down on it … I’m simply saying that hey, hey, hey, good job is all the time on our minds, inside wild and peaceable jobs. To the get right down to the jungle boogie, get right down to the one down and jungle boogie, say ‘uh!’ I needed to rap on that report. And if that wasn’t sufficient, there was extra funky stuff.” 

Mark Ronson, Lionel Richie, Usher and Anderson .Paak participated within the video introduction.

James J.T. Taylor and Robert ‘Kool’ Bell carried out “Get Down on It,” “Jungle Boogie,” “Hollywood Swinging,” “Girls’ Evening” and “Celebration.”

Dionne Warwick Calls Teyana Taylor Her “Alter Ego”

Teyana Taylor, who will play Dionne Warwick in an upcoming biopic, graced the stage in a glance harking back to the star from the Sixties with a bee-hive hairdo and olive-color empire-waist tasseled robe.

“It wasn’t till I received the function of a lifetime to play her within the upcoming biopic that I got here to know the depths of her expertise she has,” Taylor says. “She has completed an unimaginable service to the world together with her music,” calling “Don’t Make Me Over” an anthem for ladies internationally and recognizing that Warwick bumped The Beatles off of the charts. 

“Ms Warwick didn’t come to play, interval,” Taylor says. “What the world wants now’s love, candy love, however what it actually wants is extra of Ms. Dionne Warwick.” 

Jennifer Hudson sang “I’ll By no means Love This Means Once more” and was joined by Warwick, who additionally sang “Stroll On By.”

When Warwick accepted her award from Taylor, she stated that “her alter ego is with me tonight.” 

The Foreigner Tremendous Group

You’ll be able to all the time rely on the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame Induction ceremony to unite musicians in sudden methods, and 2024 didn’t disappoint on this entrance as Demi Lovato, Chad Smith, Slash, Sammy Hagar and Kelly Clarkson all got here collectively to jam for Foreigner within the absence of Mick Jones and Dennis Elliott. Lovato sang “Feels Like The First Time,” Hagar took on “Scorching Blooded” and Clarkson duetted “I Need To Know What Love Is” with Lou Gramm. Jones’ daughter accepted the induction on behalf of her dad, who stopped performing with Foreigner when he was recognized with Parkinson’s in 2022.

Peter Frampton Will get Roast and the Rocks

Roger Daltrey poked at Peter Frampton’s lack of prior nominations, beginning off his induction speech with, “I used to be astonished this man wasn’t inducted 35 years in the past.” He then shared that early on Pete Townsend joked that packs of screaming ladies had mistaken Daltrey for Frampton earlier than roasting his infinite farewell excursions. Frampton jammed with Keith City on “Do You Really feel Like We Do,” which was the most important guitar second of the evening. 

To shut the evening, Dave Matthews Band carried out all their greatest hits, after an induction from Julia Roberts the place she humorously recounted a Google search gone improper.

“Don’t Google David Matthews,” sharing that she stumbled upon a horrible story that the improper Dave Matthew was a person in New Zealand in his sixties who had suffered from a stroke.

Then, she discovered the best one … “Googled on to find — oh, associates with Adam Sandler didn’t know that there was no point out of — anyway, he and Ashley have a vineyard, cool label, good worth level. Didn’t know. After which it reads, ‘When did Dave Matthews come out?’ However that refers to when the band first got here out, as you recognize, a band. So these items occur if you identify the band after your self.”

In one of many greatest surprises of the evening, Dave Matthews Band wrapped up the night with “Burning Down the Home,” a tribute to the Speaking Heads 1983 album Talking in Tongues.