Saturday night (November 5th) was a night to remember with The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducting its 2022 members at L.A.'s Microsoft Theater, with an edited version of the event set to air on November 19th on HBO.
This year's Rock Hall inductees are Duran Duran, Pat Benatar, Eurythmics, Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie, Carly Simon, and Eminem. 2022's Musical Excellence Awards went to Judas Priest along with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.
Early Influence Awards were awarded to Harry Belafonte and Elizabeth Cotten, with Ahmet Ertegun Awards going to recording engineer, producer, and executive Jimmy Iovine, R&B singer and Sugar Hill Records founder Sylvia Robinson, and attorney, Allen Grubman.
Sadly three inductees could not attend, with co-founding Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor revealing he is suffering from stage 4 prostate cancer. Carly Simon, who is currently in mourning after losing her two older sisters within a day of each other last month, also did not make the ceremony. The great Harry Belafonte is now 95 and too frail to travel to the ceremony.
The evening was an all-star gala with several surprise guest appearances, including Dave Grohl performing "Easy" with Lionel Richie, both Steven Tyler and Ed Sheeran appearing with Eminem, along with Pat Benatar, Simon LeBon, and Rob Halford all performing with Dolly Parton on her signature tune, "Jolene."
Appearing with Priest were former members K.K. Downing and drummer Les Binks, as well as sidelined guitarist Glenn Tipton, who has been battling Parkinson's disease.
Inductors Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp saluted the late-Jerry Lee Lewis with a show-closing medley of "The Killer's" "High School Hop" and "Great Balls Of Fire."
In one of the more memorable moments of the night, during his induction speech to entertainment lawyer Allen Grubman, John Mellencamp took time out to slam rapper Kanye West for his recent anti-Semitic remarks. Mellencamp said in part: "Guys I cannot tell you how f***ing important it is to speak out if you’re an artist. Whenever you hear hate speech or something derogatory about someone else. We’re all human things. I don’t give a f*** if you’re Jewish, black, quiet, tutti frutti, I don’t care! Here’s the trick: silence is complicity. I’m standing here tonight loudly and proudly and in solidarity with Allen, his family, all of my Jewish friends and the entire Jewish people of the world. F*** Antisemitism and f***anybody who says anything in that manner."
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