It took 17 years, but the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has decided to end their habit of treating its side categories like consolation prizes.

In a recent interview with Billboard, chairman John Sykes made the new policy clear:

In past years, some people who didn’t get voted in in the Performer category went on to receive one of these other awards.

If you’re nominated in the performing category, then you’re not considered in one of the special committees [that year]. In future years, though, they could be considered for the special committee categories, because those look at not only their relevance and their power as a performing artist and songwriter, but their influence on other artists and the genres included.

Setting aside the sloppiness of inducting performers in any category other than "Performer" in the first place, this new policy at least removes the awkwardness of telling inductees, "sorry, you didn't get the votes, but here's this other thing that (we swear) is just as good."

We first wrote about this in 2009 when Wanda Jackson got in through Early Influence despite having appeared Performer ballot that year.

If Wanda Jackson was going to be inducted whether she won or lost the vote, then why bother taking up that valuable spot on the ballot with her name?

The 2009 ballot was notable for having just nine nominees, so each ballot spot was especially precious.

Below is a list of all of the inductions that fell into this category:

• Wanda Jackson - Early Influence (2009)
• Freddie King - Early Influence (2012)
• Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Early Influence (2018)
• LL Cool J - Musical Excellence (2021)
• Judas Priest - Musical Excellence (2022)

The 2022 induction of Judas Priest was the final straw for the practice after Rob Halford expressed his mixed emotions about the honor in an interview with Ed Masley from the Arizona Republic:

Question: How did it feel to be given the Musical Excellence Award by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year?

Answer: (laughs). You really want to know, Ed?

Q: Yes, I really want to know.

A: Why haven't they given us the the same title as all of our friends. Black Sabbath, for example. There's a different tag, isn't there?

Q: There is a different tag. That's why I wondered how you felt about it.

A: Well, yeah, I was pissed. I was a bit pissed. At the end of the day, does it matter? Some days, I go, 'No, it doesn't matter. We're in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Be grateful. Shut the hell up.'

And then there are other days where I'm like, 'God damn, why did they give us the Musical Excellence Award?' Because it sounds very, you know, grandiose. 'The Musical Excellence Award, reserved for blah, blah, blah.'

And I'm like, 'Yeah, but I want to be with that bunch of musicians over there that have got the performance or whatever it is that they've got.' I don't know why they gave us the Musical Excellence Award. I have no clue.

I just felt a little bit like, 'Well, Sabbath got this. So why can't we have that?' Not that I'm jealous of Sabbath. I'm just talking about this tag that they give it.

Why do they put these tags on the damn thing? Why don't they go, 'Welcome. You're in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame' and leave it at that.

A lot of our fans went, 'What the hell?' 'Oh, you know, they're a great band. They are an excellent band.' 'But why put the musical excellence? Why don't you give them like everybody else has got?'

And I'm like, 'Yeah, but I want to be with that bunch of musicians over there that have got the performance or whatever it is that they've got.' I don't know why they gave us the Musical Excellence Award. I have no clue.

Q: Yeah, I was disappointed that they gave you that because I thought…

A: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Q: I thought, well, now, they're not gonna induct them for real, right? Because they took care of it with this Musical Excellence Award. Like, I'd rather them not have given you anything because then maybe next year you get inducted. That was my thinking.

A: My thinking exactly, Ed. I don't know. It's as though we got this far. We're, like, one step away, you know? I know it's silly, but it's just frustrating.

Q: It is. I feel for you. For real.

A: And on the other side, it's like, 'Great. Everybody else got that and we got shafted with this.' (laughs) Judas Priest are still the Rodney Dangerfield of heavy metal. They can't get no respect.

In 2023, when it appeared that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame had finally decided to change their policy when Chaka Khan was kept off the ballot before going in as a Musical Excellence inductee, we noticed:

No artists jumped from the Performer ballot to the Special Categories in the same year! This may seem like a minor point, but last year Judas Priest failed to be inducted on the regular ballot for the third time but were named in the Musical Excellence category anyway. That felt a lot like a consolation prize in the minds of fans, and even Rob Halford. LL Cool J's induction was done the same way in 2021. This year, the Rock Hall kept Chaka Khan off of the ballot clearly knowing they were going to induct her no matter what. This is a far better solution and makes the Hall of Fame seem like they aren't insulting artists while they're trying to honor them. Credit goes to new Nominating Committee chairman Rick Krim for the new discipline (assuming he's responsible).

With this policy, the Rock Hall continues to make positive strides in fixing its once broken induction system.

A last minute plea to the Rock Hall Nominating Committee: If you're going to induct performers in the side categories because you know they can't get past the voters (like LL Cool J, Kraftwerk, and Judas Priest), please don't put them back on the ballot. #RockHall2023 #RockHall

— Future Rock Legends (@futurerocklgnds) January 23, 2023

.@alshipley on the @rockhall's "Consolation Prize Problem": "But Chic and LL Cool J are still not really in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and are still as deserving of a full induction as they were before." https://t.co/uoLLPprKIJ

— Future Rock Legends (@futurerocklgnds) February 2, 2022

Back in February, when Alan Light dropped the news that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame had implemented term limits for its Nominating Committee, there were still questions about the details of the rule and who it would impact. On a recent podcast, Light clarified a few things about the purpose of the change and the term limit:

So as we talked about, the committee instituted term limits, something that had been talked about, but was not there before, and I was very supportive of this idea. I'm not allowed to complain about being one of the first who got bounced because I was supportive of that because I do feel like after a certain number of years, anything that I felt or my colleagues felt really passionate about, we had our shot to make the case.

There's always going to be something [new] to come up, context is going to change. There's somebody you want to fight for. It's not that we're just dragging the same names to the table every year. But if there is something that you feel strongly about, after a while, you've had your opportunity. And you don't want the room to get too big and unwieldy, it's got to be a finite number of people. And so the notion that after having served 15 years, you cycle out and bring in younger members of the committee, people from different backgrounds, different perspectives, different sides of the industry, representing different genres.

And I think you saw that on the ballot this year looked different. We talked about it when the ballot came out and said, yeah, that's a reflection of different people determining what that ballot is and a different generation of people being brought into that room. And I think that's great. I think you want to evolve, you want to expand. It can't just be the same grizzled old guys coming in, bringing the same names up and fighting, having the same argument about them year after year after year. That just doesn't serve anybody well. And so out of that, I'm happy with what this looks like.

The key piece of news here is the limit of 15 years. That would imply that these members from the 2025 Nominating Committee were not welcomed back this year (this is unofficial):

1. Bill Flanagan (32 years on the NomCom)
2. David Fricke (27)
3. Elysa Gardner (19)
4. Alan Light (19)
5. Rob Light (25)
6. Steven Van Zandt (30)

It's safe to assume that Rick Krim (17) and John Sykes (30) are exempted from the new rule due to their elevated positions at the Hall of Fame.

Looking ahead, 2026 would seem to have been the final year for Cliff Burnstein (assuming he wasn't removed already). After 2027, Holly George-Warren, Meg Griffin, and Mike Kaufman will have hit their 15 years. In 2028, Tom Morello and Questlove will age out as well (museum president Greg Harris is likely exempt). For 2029 and 2030, no one hits their limits, but in 2031 Dave Grohl and Sandy Alouete will have their final meeting.

All of these term limit replacements are just the amount required by the new rule. Additional turnover may occur as usual.

A new wrinkle with this new rule is the impact it will have in the meeting. Will the preferences of nominators who are near the end of their term be given more deference in their final years? Look for more "personal picks" to slip through in the upcoming years.

Hopefully there will be new members who emerge that are as open about their selections as Alan Light, Questlove, Steven Van Zandt, and Tom Morello were. Over the years they have provided valuable insight into the induction process. Their loss is a serious setback for the already limited transparency we have.

The 2026 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductees were announced live on American Idol on April 13th. The induction ceremony will be held on November 14th at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. ABC and Disney+ will air an edited version of the ceremony in December. There will be no live stream of the full ceremony.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame voting ended on March 25th and they will officially announce the class of 2026 on American Idol on April 13th. Future Rock Legends predicts the inductees in the Performer category will be:

1. Wu-Tang Clan: The surprise leader among public ballots (see below) clearly benefit from a clear hip hop lane and the additional credentials from the solo careers of all of their members. Makes you wonder if they could have been inducted years ago (eligible since 2018).
2. Phil Collins: His résumé appeals to a lot of different factions of voters so he should be able to coast his way in. The induction segment will be an emotional highlight of the ceremony.
3. Oasis: The tidal wave of goodwill they earned with last year's tour should easily carry them into the Hall of Fame. Against all odds, we're guessing they will be willing participants in the ceremony.
4. Iron Maiden: When the ballot was first released, we sensed this was the best shot they've ever had. The shortage of guitar bands to compete with and the increased number of votes only helps their case. There's widespread acknowledgement that the Rock Hall underrepresents metal and voters feel inclined to correct that. Then the Blaze Bayley thing made it a certainty. Too bad they won't be able to come to the ceremony due to their tour.
5. Luther Vandross: In our early reaction post we called him "this year's Joe Cocker. An iconic voice that voters will immediately gravitate towards now that they have the chance." Still sounds exactly correct.
6. Mariah Carey: This year Mariah decided to finally acknowledge her nomination by doing an interview with Variety (albeit doing the interview two weeks after the e-ballots come out isn't ideal). We take that as a positive sign that she and the Rock Hall are finally ready to get hitched.
7. Billy Idol: The rumor is that Idol's management team has been actively calling voters to lobby for him this year. With the release of his documentary and the announcement of a summer tour (mysteriously having a "Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Presale" for Cleveland), the stars are aligned for Idol to announce 2026 inductee Idol.

Additional Notes:

• John Sykes has been open about using the side categories to help balance out the induction class. Based on the lack of pre-late 70's artists on the ballot, look for at least a few Musical Influence/Excellence inductees to represent those eras (i.e. no Salt-N-Pepa types this year).
• The new Nominating Committee made some interesting choices this year in selecting "one album" artists Jeff Buckley and Lauryn Hill. Both have some Hall credentials, but there are still so many better candidates from the 90s that are still waiting. It's baffling how these things happen until you play the Simulator!
• Here are the public ballot standings that we tracked this year. The lack of enthusiasm for INXS and Shakira surprised us.





• New Edition won the Fan Poll and impressively received over 1 million votes in a short 38 days. Supposedly, in addition to social media, they used the Peter Frampton technique of posting a QR code at their concerts to encourage their fans to vote for them. The rest of the top 7 were Phil Collins, Pink, Shakira, Luther Vandross, INXS, and Sade. The last few weeks of voting were dominated by Shakira fans who took her from the bottom all the way up to fourth place. If the poll had stayed open as long as previous years, she may have given New Edition a run for the money.






• What do our readers think is going to happen? The results from our own prediction poll (usually gets about 66% correct):

Who do you think will be inducted? Leave your thoughts below.

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Since many have asked, if there's an 8th performer inductee, we'll predict it will be Joy Division/New Order.

If you were going to create a first ballot Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee in a lab, an artist with critically acclaimed albums, worldwide popularity, huge hit songs, and an all-time live performer, it would look exactly like Coldplay. Despite being eligible now for four years, they still haven't been nominated. What's going on here?

Let's rewind for a moment back to before the ballot was released in 2023. At that point, artists were eligible 26 years after their first recording (25 years from the nomination date, but the induction year was traditionally in the following calendar year — yes, it was confusing). Coldplay released their first EP in 1998, so they had been expected to be eligible in 2024. When the 2023 ballot was released, it was revealed that the Rock Hall decided to formally shift its calendar forward a year so eligibility could be calculated with a clean 25 years to date of the ceremony. This suddenly made artists who released their first recordings in 1997 and 1998 both first year eligible. For example, Missy Elliott's first release was 1997 and The White Stripes had theirs in 1998. Both became nominees in their first eligible year. Coldplay, who was now suddenly eligible, did not get nominated.

At the time, it may have been easy to attribute Coldplay's snub to the Rock Hall's unexpected rule change, but in any case, they would no longer get the distinction of being "first ballot Hall of Famers" like many of their peers.

Fast forward to 2024 and nearly everyone who pays attention to the Hall of Fame was predicting Coldplay to be nominated. When the ballot was officially revealed, Coldplay wasn't on it, but someone left a clue:

On this episode, it's discussed that Questlove's IG story announcing the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominees originally included Coldplay until he took it down 24 hours later 👀 #RockHall2024 https://t.co/USDiIMxmYx

— Future Rock Legends (@futurerocklgnds) February 16, 2024

Questlove, one of the most well known members of the Nominating Committee, had created his own Instagram story revealing the 2024 ballot. The video included the 15 official nominees plus Coldplay. Apparently sometime between the Nominating Committee meeting and the official reveal, Coldplay had been removed from the ballot and word had not gotten back to Questlove.

The prevailing theory at the time was that since Coldplay was still in the middle of their multiyear Music of the Spheres world tour, they asked to be removed from consideration, and the Rock Hall complied.

Okay, but how about 2025? Again, no nomination, despite having a clear calendar in the Fall around the time of the induction ceremony. Maybe the tour conflict isn't the reason.

And now here we are again in 2026 with another group of nominees and Coldplay is still mysteriously absent, even with zero scheduled tour dates.

Does the Rock Hall hate Coldplay? Does Coldplay hate the Rock Hall?

The only plausible explanation for the lack of a nomination comes from the 2026 ballot reveal episode of the Who Cares About the Rock Hall podcast, where host Joe Kwaczala relays a rumor he's heard about their candidacy:

Kristen Studard: [The fact] that Coldplay has not been on a ballot is crazy to me because they are such a Rock Hall type band.

Joe Kwaczala: I've told you my theory of that. They have announced that they are working on their final album, and that they are powerful enough to [tell the Rock Hall], "we would like to include an induction as part of our farewell campaign."

Perhaps that once the possibility of being a first ballot Hall of Famer like the all-time greats passed them by, Coldplay decided to take their time with it all. In any case, the Rock Hall will be there waiting with open arms whenever Coldplay decides they want to be inducted.

Should artists be able to dictate the terms of their own induction to the Hall of Fame? With other big names becoming eligible soon, it's a risky precedent to set.

• Nominating Committee Term Limits: In a Facebook thread about the nominees, Alan Light revealed that after 19 years, he was removed from the Nominating Committee because term limits have been introduced. To Light's credit, he supports the change, after having previously lauded the value of having new voices at the table. Adding term limits was one of our 10 suggestions for fixing the Rock Hall from 2019. It's unknown at this point exactly how many members of the Nominating Committee turned over from last year, but it is likely in the 7-10 range.

• Voting Rule Changes: After the switch to sending out electronic ballots via email last year, the Rock Hall made another significant change to the process. They now require their official voters to vote for exactly seven names. Up until this year, the Rock Hall had no minimum number you had to vote for. Most would vote for the maximum, but many voters decided to only support the names that truly met their threshold of being a Hall of Famer. Since 2024, when the Rock Hall increased the maximum votes from five to seven, over 25% of public ballots were returned with less than seven names checked.

• Explicit Voting Criteria: Official voters now receive the following screen before reviewing the ballot. The Rock Hall has been criticized lately for valuing commercial success and industry connections over artistic merit. Their reminder to voters to consider "Excellence, Innovation, Influence, and Impact" is a return of to their roots when they used to state that popularity, "gold records, number one hits, and million sellers are really not appropriate standards for evaluation."

• Fan Vote Changes: The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's popular Fan Vote is back this year, but the overall duration of the voting has been cut from 87 days in 2023, to 69 days in 2025, to now just 38 days in 2026 (it closes this year on April 3rd). We have tracked this poll daily since 2013, and it consistently reveals the ultimate winners after about 2 weeks of voting. Needlessly extending it longer just takes advantage of fans' time who are eager to support their favorite artists no matter what. This is a great change.
• Fan Vote Becomes Even More Meaningless: What's odd about the shorter fan vote duration is that the Voting Committee's 1200 e-ballots are due on March 25th, a full nine days before the Fan Vote closes, which counts as the single remaining ballot. With electronic balloting, the Rock Hall will quickly know who is getting in and will begin making arrangements based on that induction class well before April 3rd. The only way that final ballot will have any impact at all is if there is a tie for the 7th spot, and in previous years the Rock Hall has been known to increase the number of inductees even when the numbers are close. It may still be a point of pride for fans to finish in the top seven, but it ultimately won't make a difference.
• The Ballot Announcement: This was discussed in the John Sykes Report Card where we gave him an "F" on this topic, but the Rock Hall failed to even tease the ballot announcement date in advance on social media. Their fan vote page briefly displayed a "countdown clock" to the announcement in its code which was subsequently removed once it was discovered and never returned. The media embargo quietly lifted at 6am EST on Wednesday but the Rock Hall had given up their exclusivity and control over the announcement.
• Induction Ceremony Location: The mystery of the host city for the 2026 ceremony is still under wraps. Cleveland is expecting it, but John Sykes has other ideas.

The 2026 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nominees were announced at 6:00am EST on Wednesday, February 25th. Inductees will be revealed in April, and will be honored at a ceremony in the fall.

* - Blaze Bayley was added a few weeks after the nominations were first announced.

• The 100 Greatest Artist of All-Time (previously The Immortals)
• The Top 500 Albums of All-Time
• The Top 500 Songs of All-Time

To do so, we received and tabulated Top 50 Albums lists from more than 300 artists, producers, critics, and music-industry figures (from radio programmers to label heads). The electorate includes Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and Billie Eilish; rising artists like H.E.R., Tierra Whack, and Lindsey Jordan of Snail Mail; as well as veteran musicians, such as Adam Clayton and the Edge of U2, Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan, Gene Simmons, and Stevie Nicks.

In the three years since Rolling Stone rolled out the all-new, fully revamped version of our 500 Greatest Albums list, artists like Beyonce, Bad Bunny, and Taylor Swift have all released undeniable classics. So we’ve updated the list, adding those albums while making a few other tweaks.

• Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums of All-Time (2020 version)
• Rolling Stone's Top 500 Songs of All-Time (2021 version)

1. D'Angelo
2. Fiona Apple
3. Joy Division/New Order
4. Pavement
5. Big Star
6. Erykah Badu
7. John Coltrane
8. De La Soul
9. Oasis
10. Sade
11. PJ Harvey
12. Bjork
13. Lucinda Williams
14. Sonic Youth
15. Daft Punk
16. Pixies