How I’m Voting on My Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Ballot 2025

AARP (Sean Zanni/Getty Images; Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images; ason Mendez/Getty Images) Facebook Twitter LinkedIn

As one of more than 1,200 voting members of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for three decades, I still struggle with each annual ballot: a crazy quilt that long ago abandoned classic rock ’n’

roll confines to embrace any genre that rock emerged from or seeped into. Billy Idol? A rebel yeah! Phish? No to this crappie band. And Maná? Muy bueno, but maybe later. 

My yearly task: Choose a maximum of seven from a list of a dozen or more finalists determined each year by the Rock Hall Foundation’s nominating committee of 40 music professionals. [Voting

ends April 21, and the inductees will be announced soon after, along with the date for fall’s induction ceremony in Los Angeles.]

Don’t miss this: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nominations Salute Several 50+ Performers

This year’s hopefuls include eight nominated for the first time: Bad Company, The Black Crowes, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Billy Idol, Maná, Outkast and Phish.

It’s the most rock-leaning ballot in years, and also very white and male. Fans grouse that an elitist nominating committee undervalues heavy metal (it does). Critics complain that the

process overlooks women and certain genres, has an East Coast bias and favors names that will lift TV ratings.

Everyone bewails perennially ignored favorites (my cherished long shot is Bobby Fuller). I’m also still waiting for The Replacements, Björk (59), The Meters, Chic, De La Soul, Devo, Gloria

Estefan (67), War, Dick Dale, Nick Cave (67), Peter Tosh, Sinéad O’Connor, Sade (66), Roberta Flack, Warren Zevon and Gram Parsons to make the cut.

Bruce Dickinson, 66, of long-unnominated Iron Maiden, said, “Rock ’n’ roll music does not belong in a mausoleum … they won’t bloody be having my corpse in there.” Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott,

65, declared Rock Hall voters a “boardroom of faceless, tuxedo-wearing morons.”

Still, most cherish the honor, and those still with us from the nearly 400 already inducted join the hundreds of historians, music industry folks and fellow artists who will decide the next

class. You can weigh in yourself on a ballot called the Fan Vote; Phish is currently leading. Here’s who I voted for and against, and some predictions on who’s likely to be admitted.