“I’ve been in the demo studio for the last three weeks”: Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson has 18 songs ready for new solo album, will record it “early next year”
During a recent conversation with Ryan J. Downey as part of the Musicians Institute’s M.I. Conversation series, the singer, who released his long-anticipated seventh solo outing The Mandrake Project last year, reveals he’s demoed many songs for his next album.
“I’ve just been in the demo studio with everybody [in Dickinson’s solo band] for the last three weeks, and we ended up with 18 tracks in 15 days,” he reveals (via Blabbermouth). “It’s gonna be a really cool album.”
Dickinson adds that Brendan Duffey, who mixed The Mandrake Project, will be the new project’s producer, and that he hopes to properly record it “early next year”.
“I’ve got some gaps,” he says, referring to his upcoming tour schedules between his solo band and Maiden. “January, February, March, April is kind of a free zone for me next year.”
If Dickinson’s eighth album is indeed recorded in 2026, it would represent a much quicker production process than The Mandrake Project’s. The album was the vocalist’s first in 19 years, following 2005’s Tyranny of Souls. He explained the long gap between solo releases during an interview with Classic Rock last year.
“It’s been on the boil since 2014,” he said. “Then I got diagnosed with throat cancer, then we had fucking COVID, so there were two years when I couldn’t go to the USA. So by the time I reconvened with [producer and guitarist] Roy Z, everything had moved on.”
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Dickinson released his first solo album, Tattooed Millionaire, in 1990. It was a stripped-back pop-metal effort, intended to contrast with the progressive and expansive music Maiden deal in. He released further albums after leaving Maiden in 1993, and sustained his solo career after rejoining in 1999.
Maiden are currently gearing up for the Run For Your Lives tour, which kicks off with a European leg from May to August. The band will celebrate their 50th anniversary by playing material from their first nine albums, from 1980’s Iron Maiden to 1992’s Fear Of The Dark.
In a statement on New Year’s Eve, Dickinson promised the new shows will feature “stuff we’ve never, ever done before”. See the full list of confirmed dates below.
MI Conversation Series with – Bruce Dickinson Pt 1 – YouTube
May 27: Budapest Aréna, Hungary * May 28: Budapest Aréna, Hungary * May 31: Prague Letnany Airport, Czech Republic * Jun 01: Bratislava TIPOS Arena, Slovakia * Jun 05: Trondheim Rocks, Norway ≠ Jun 07: Stavanger SR-Bank Arena, Norway * Jun 09: Copenhagen Royal Arena, Denmark * Jun 12: Stockholm 3Arena, Sweden * Jun 13: Stockholm 3Arena, Sweden * Jun 16: Helsinki Olympic Stadium, Finland * Jun 19: Dessel Graspop Metal Meeting, Belgium≠
Jun 21: Birmingham Utilita Arena, UK ^ Jun 22: Manchester Co-op Live, UK ^ Jun 25: Dublin Malahide Castle, Ireland *^ Jun 28: London Stadium, UK *^ Jun 30: Glasgow OVO Hydro, UK ^
Jul 03: Belfort Eurockéennes, France ≠ Jul 05: Madrid Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano, Spain ** Jul 06: Lisbon MEO Arena, Portugal ** Jul 09: Zurich Hallenstadion, Switzerland ** Jul 11: Gelsenkirchen Veltins-Arena, Germany ** Jul 13: Padova Stadio Euganeo, Italy ** Jul 15: Bremen Bürgerweide, Germany ** Jul 17: Vienna Ernst Happel Stadium, Austria ** Jul 19: Paris Paris La Défense Arena, France ** Jul 20: Paris Paris La Défense Arena, France ** Jul 23: Arnhem GelreDome, Netherlands ** Jul 25: Frankfurt Deutsche Bank Park, Germany ** Jul 26: Stuttgart Cannstatter Wasen, Germany ** Jul 29: Berlin Waldbühne, Germany ** Jul 30: Berlin Waldbühne, Germany ** Aug 02: Warsaw PGE Narodowy, Poland **
* = Halestorm support ^ = The Raven Age support ** = Avatar support ≠ = Festival date
Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.
Foreigner played the first show of their 2025 South American tour Monday night with Luis Maldonado serving as their lead singer for almost the entire main set.
As if that wasn’t exciting enough, founding vocalist Lou Gramm joined in for the last four songs.
You can see videos and the full set list from the show below.
Earlier this year it was announced that Maldonado, who has served as a guitarist in Foreigner since 2021, would be taking over for Kelly Hansen on lead vocals for this leg of the tour.
“Some issues have forced me to limit appearances outside of the USA this year, and this means, unfortunately, I will miss Foreigner’s South American run,” Hansen explained at the time. “However, our incredible bandmate Luis Maldonado has been recording some of our hits in Spanish and he will be handling most of the vocals along with Lou Gramm who will be guesting with Foreigner for those shows. I know they will smash it!”
Maldonado looked quite comfortable and confident in his new role as the band hit the stage with the opening “Double Vision,” and handled the majority of the main set alone until Gramm arrived for a main-set closing “Juke Box Hero.”
The two shared vocals on “I Want to Know What Love Is,” with Maldonado delivering the opening verse in Spanish. The band’s South American tour continues until a May 10 show in Sao Paulo.
They’ll return to the United States – presumably with Hansen back behind the microphone – beginning on June 11 in Highland, California. The group will have another temporary lead singer change this fall when they head to Canada without Hansen. Geordie Brown, who starred in Juke Box Hero, the Musical will handle lead vocals for those dates.
Watch Foreigner Perform in Mexico City
Foreigner Mexico City April 28 2025 Set List
1. “Double Vision” 2. “Head Games” 3. “Cold as Ice” 4. “Waiting for a Girl Like You” 5. “That Was Yesterday” 6. “Dirty White Boy” 7. “Feels Like the First Time” 8. “Urgent” 9. Keyboard Solo 10. Drum Solo 11. “Juke Box Hero” (with Lou Gramm) 12. “Long, Long Way From Home” (with Lou Gramm) 13. “I Want to Know What Love Is” (with Lou Gramm) 14. “Hot Blooded” (with Lou Gramm)
During a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the Red Rocker seemed resigned to the fact that he and the drummer will remain estranged.
“Al, you’re fine. Just leave me alone. I’ll leave you alone. Everything’s good,” Hagar remarked. “I’m making you money, by the way, Al. I’m out there selling Van Halen records and keeping the name alive, keeping the music alive.”
‘Al’s Angry Because I’m Out Doing It’
At several points in the interview, Hagar expressed confusion as to why Alex holds a grudge towards him. The singer theorized that it stems from jealously regarding the state of their current careers.
“I think Al’s angry because I’m out doing it, and Mike [Anthony] and I are out doing it, and he can’t,” Hagar explained. “He’s not a singer. He’s not a guitar player. He is not really a band leader. And he seems like he doesn’t want to play drums or can’t play drums anymore, and he can’t go write a new record. Alex wasn’t the songwriter in the band. He was the drummer. Eddie and I wrote the songs. Dave [Lee Roth] and Eddie wrote the songs, and so we can go out and do them. And I think that really bothers him that Mike and I are still out there doing it. I would feel bad. If I put myself in his shoes, I would feel terrible if I couldn’t do it anymore.”
The Red Rocker went on to describe himself as “the happiest guy out of all of them. That pisses people off in itself. Being too happy, people don’t like that.”
Sammy Hagar Dreams About Eddie Van Halen… And Alex, Too
Even at 77 years old, Hagar remains very active. The singer’s Best of All Worlds Las Vegas residency – which will largely focus on Van Halen material – kicks off April 30. He also recently released a new song titled “Encore, Thank You, Goodnight,” inspired by a dream he had of Eddie Van Halen. Interestingly, Hagar admitted he had a recent dream about Alex, too.
“It was crazy. And it was so friggin’ real,” the singer recalled. “I was saying, ‘What are you pissed off at me about, man? What the fuck? Now just tell me what your problem is. What did I do? Just tell me.’”
Dream Alex laughed. “And he goes, ‘You really don’t know, do you?’ And I said, ‘No, I don’t.’ And so then it became this game, and he was saying, ‘Well, I’ll tell you what, let’s flip a coin, and heads, I’ll tell you, tails, suffer.’ Now that’s a fucking pretty realistic dream.”
The Best Song From Every Van Halen Album
They released a dozen albums over their career. These are the songs for your playlist.
Speaking to Chaoszine in an interview embedded below, the former Kiss guitarist recalled that Simmons wasn’t convinced the highly polished, keyboard-heavy sound of 1987’s Crazy Nights was the right move for the group to make.
“It was interesting to get [producer] Ron Nevison involved, who was very successful then, he had hits with some big bands,” Kulick recalled. “I know that Paul [Stanley] was very excited to work with him, Gene maybe not as much.”
Prior to working on Crazy Nights, Nevison had helped Heart launch their massive mid-’80s comeback with slick, modern-sounding hits such as “What About Love” and “These Dreams.”
Although the album kept Kiss’ ’80s commercial winning streak intact it didn’t break through to the desired mainstream audience. The also received some blowback from longtime fans accusing them of once again hopping on the latest trends – as they did in the late ’70s with disco and would do in the ’90s with grunge – in an effort to replicate the success of pop-metal superstars such as Bon Jovi.
“Ron had a vision for the album,” Kulick continues. “But I know that even though he added some elements that people argued with – maybe keyboards or some samples on the snare drum, but he always wanted the lead guitar on front, which was important to me. So I was happy about that. I think he did a good job, though I remember watching Gene be so nervous about it.”
Simmons’ concerns about the album’s creative direction may have magnified another problem the group had been facing for a few years. By his own admission, Simmons’ focus was split between the band and his other pursuits – including running his own record label and trying to launch an acting career.
Instead of their usual roughly even split, Simmons wound up singing on only four of Crazy Night‘s 11 songs, most of which are much more guitar-oriented than the rest of the album. In his 2014 memoir Face the Music, Stanley recalls the moment he finally confronted Simmons about the unfair work balance. “This isn’t okay anymore. I’m done with this. You can’t expect to be my partner if you’re not going to hold up your end.”
A few days later, a repentant Simmons offered to buy Stanley a Jaguar, to thank him for the extra responsibilities he taken on in recent years.
“It was a nice move on his part,” Stanley recalled. “But I had my eye on a Porsche. When we shot the video for the second single from Crazy Nights, ‘Reason to Live,” the story line involved a beautiful woman blowing up a car. It was a black Porsche 928. And I drove it home from the video shoot, compliments of Gene.”
Watch Bruce Kulick Break Down His Kiss Discography
Kiss Solo Albums Ranked Worst to Best
Counting down solo albums released by various members of Kiss.
Phish fans weren’t so lucky. The jam-rock kings were the most surprising snub from this year’s field of contenders.
The Vermont band, founded in 1983, is known for its unique sound influenced by prog rock, jazz, and funk. It is characterized by twenty-minute, mind-bending improvisational cuts and their maniacal following and counter culture. The group consists of Trey Anastasio (guitar and lead vocals), Page McConnell (keyboards and vocals), Mike Gordon (bass and vocals), and Jon Fishman (drums and vocals). Phish certainly meets the criteria for induction, with their high-demand tours year after year and a sound that is a niche of its own. Phish never plays the same set twice, including thirteen consecutive sellouts at Madison Square Garden with no songs repeated, known as “The Baker’s Dozen.”
Watch Phish Perform ‘Blaze On’
As the Rock Hall states, “There is nothing like the pure freedom and joy of a Phish concert—a powerful communal moment often likened to a religious experience, a transcendent moment.”
Phish topped the fan votes for this year’s nominees by more than 50,000 votes but was left out of the party. How could that be?
Surprisingly, Billy Idol, who ranked #3 in total fan voting, was also snubbed, receiving more than 260,000 votes yet not making the cut. As you can see from the list below, bands like the White Stripes made the list despite being near the bottom for fan votes, yet The Black Crowes also missed the mark:
Phish: 329,281 votes Bad Company: 280,725 votes Billy Idol: 260,416 votes Cyndi Lauper: 236,960 votes Joe Cocker: 233,495 votes Soundgarden: 233,205 votes Chubby Checker: 203,092 votes The Black Crowes: 165,249 votes Mariah Carey: 137,993 votes Joy Division + New Order: 120,346 votes The White Stripes: 110,511 votes Outkast: 108,073 votes Oasis: 99,381 votes Maná: 34,506 votes
How are the fan votes measured? Rather than having a ballot for each fan vote, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame places the top five on one ballot, thus representing only one of 1200 ballots, amid a field of artists, writers and industry executives. This has a minimal impact on the overall results, hence why Billy Idol, The Black Crowes, and Phish missed the mark.
Similarly, in 2020, despite winning the fan vote, The Dave Matthews Band was not inducted into the Rock Hall. However, DMB would later be crowned four years later, in 2024. This is not the end of the road for Phish, who, despite being snubbed, are carving a path of their own. Maybe it’s time to consider new metrics for voting.
135 Artists Not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Many have shared their thoughts on possible induction.
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The Band – The Band
(Image credit: Atlantic)
The Kids Are Back Like A Knife In The Back Ride To Live, Live To Ride I Am (I’m Me) The Power And The Glory We’re Gonna Make It I’ve Had Enough I’ll Take You Alive You’re Not Alone (Suzette’s Song) You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll
After a decade’s worth of gigs on the East Coast’s Tri-State area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, Twisted Sister’s critically acclaimed visits to the UK snagged them a deal with Atlantic, despite American label boss Doug Morris famously calling the band “the worst fucking piece of shit in the world”.
A self-financed appearance on British TV show The Tube had sealed the deal, a modest $60,000 being allocated for them to make You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll, recorded at Jimmy Page’s home in Cookham, Berkshire. However, when the recordings came in at $4,500 over budget, Atlantic vowed to sit on record in the States until the group generated the shortfall themselves.
In the UK it was far different, as I Am (I’m Me),The Kids Are Back and the title track all became hit singles, and the band made a triumphant appearance at Monsters Of Rock in 1983. Bigger and better was to follow, as the following year’s Stay Hungry and the evergreen We’re Not Gonna Take It turned the band into a multi-platinum success, but You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll got the ball rolling.
Every week, Album of the Week Club listens to and discusses the album in question, votes on how good it is, and publishes our findings, with the aim of giving people reliable reviews and the wider rock community the chance to contribute.
“Several of Twisted Sister’s best anthems reside here – the title track (which was one of the band’s first videos to be aired on MTV), as well as The Kids Are Back, We’re Gonna Make It, and I Am (I’m Me). But besides a ballad that vocalist Dee Snider wrote especially for his wife, You’re Not Alone (Suzette’s Song), the album is comprised of 100 percent heavy metal.” (AllMusic)
“Sophomore slump? Pfft, Twister Sister not only leap way over that pitfall, they raise the bar while they are there. You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll is one of the most underrated albums of not only the 80s but in rock/metal; from start to end, it is a masterclass brought to you by a group written off as one-album wonders.” (Metal Storm)
“Those that wrote off Twisted Sister based on impressions of a couple of overplayed videos never took the time to see this band of troublemakers for who they really were, years before commercial success arrived; an ass-kickin’ bunch of wild rock’n’roll dogs that wrote more than their fair share of anthems and never disappointed an audience… if you really want to hear the spirit of Twisted Sister in all thier primal glory, then start your journey with You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll.” (Blabbermouth)
What you said…
Mike Canoe: Hello, window. Goodbye, objectivity.
I have been a fan of Twisted Sister’s You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll for more than 40 years and it was an absolute pleasure to turn up the volume on my Monday morning work commute. While a school holiday gets the credit for making it less traffic than usual, points to Dee Snider and company for making it a lot more fun.
Twisted Sister always struck me as having more experience and grit than their peers. I now realize that they were about half a decade or more older than the other bands they were lumped in with which I’m sure helped. Still, there’s a lot of muscle in these NWOBHM-informed, punk-aware songs.
A lot of that comes from Dee Snider. He’s a great, arguably underrated, singer with a powerful voice and commanding presence that sells these songs. The pummeling rhythm section of Mark “The Animal” Mendoza and A.J. Pero moves from strength to strength while guitarists Jay Jay French and Eddie Ojeda keep the riffs coming and don’t overplay.
I like all of it but I’ll note some highlights. I Am (I’m Me) sounds like the less silly prototype for anthems like I Wanna Rock and We’re Not Gonna Take It. The Kids Are Back and Like A Knife In The Back repurpose Alice Cooper’s attitude for a new generation while You’re Not Alone (Suzette’s Song) is one of the great lost power ballads of all time – and again shows the band’s comparative maturity to their contemporaries; exaggerated makeup, stage clothes and all. Then there’s the triumphant chestbeater of a title track that brings everything to a triumphant, sweaty close.
Stay Hungry, which is probably a lot heavier than you remember, may be their best-selling album by a wide margin but You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll will always be the best in this eternal teenager’s heart.
Gary Claydon: Some bands/albums don’t need dissecting. It’s Twisted Sister. I prefer the grittier Under The Blade to You Can’t Stop Rock and Roll’, which is a clear bridge to the more commercially savvy, MTV-friendly Stay Hungry.
Dumb? You betcha. Fun? Absolutely.
Chris Downie: A curious footnote in rock and metal history, Twisted Sister are a band deservedly lauded for their high-octane live shows (both in the 80s and their sporadic post-millennium reunions) and for taking a stand against the hated PMRC. It is all too easy to forget that, among the controversy they garnered (particularly their Marmite lead singer Dee Snider) their catalogue is one worthy of critical examination, being as notable for its head-scratching lows as for its impressive highs.
While the band themselves disowned their fifth album and subsequent swansong Love Is For Suckers (I struggle to recall any cuts being dusted off from it on their many reunion tours) and acknowledge the divisiveness of its predecessor Come Out And Play, the first three albums represent the band’s all-too-brief recorded legacy.
Sandwiched between the fiery debut and multi-platinum Stay Hungry, this opus falls musically between the two, striking a fine balance between boisterous, glam-tinged 80s Heavy Metal and classic hard rock, evidenced by the fine title track. It is the sound of a band who cut their teeth in clubs, honing their live craft over several years in the late 70’s, amidst local fanfare but record label indifference.
Looking back on their legacy, it’s all too easy to pigeonhole them among their 80’s peers – and their refusal to even attempt a new album during the post-1999 reunions lends credence to that – and it’s also true their overall catalogue’s 3/5 success rate sees them fall just short of the true greats. However, their self-styled “SMF” fanbase can point to this all-too-brief period where they fired on all cylinders and delivered a solid three-album run that spoke to rebellious teens and discerning metalheads alike. 8/10.
Brian Carr: While there are plenty of “big, dumb rock bands” that I thoroughly dislike, but the critically lambasted Twisted Sister isn’t one of them. At this point, We’re Not Gonna Take It and I Wanna Rock certainly exist in the “never need to hear these songs again in my life” category, but the videos were fun and probably played a small part in making Animal House one of my all-time favourite movies. Despite the fact that I probably heard the title track of You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll before the Stay Hungry juggernaut (thanks, K-Tel compilations!), I don’t think I ever listened to the album.
As expected, YCSR’N’R is straightforward hard rock/metal with crunchy riffs and decent lead guitar work. I always thought Dee Snider was a rather underrated singer, though the bonus live content wasn’t very flattering (his energetic performance had him shouting rather than singing). What did surprise me was some impressive bass playing from Mark Mendoza. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, but for rock with attitude, I’d much rather listen to Twisted Sister than punk. They’re like a greasy burger and fries, or a well-worn, comfortable pair of jeans. I’ll leave the women’s clothes to them, though.
Twisted Sister – You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll (Official Music Video) – YouTube
Chris Layton: There are some fairly decent Twisted Sister albums. This is not one of them. I very much dig the hair metal bands from the 80s, but the lack of songwriting skills glares at me when I listen to this. The drums, no intense grooving or even impressive fills. The bass… again, no interesting riffs to be found. No style in the guitar playing. There were a few songs that the main thing going on is a generic drum part with a generic bass line behind, and then vocals over top (no guitar mind you, until just about the chorus) while Dee Snider sings (with none of the intensity you find in later works) forgettable lyrics.
If there were guitars during the verse, you get power chord, root note x 7 and the same power chord and root notes again. Then jump up a string and do the exact same thing again. As a guitarist, I can’t imagine how bored Jay Jay must have been while playing on this album. There are no guitar riffs that are instantly recognizable and iconic like Poison or Motley have. Only the title track is halfway notable. Swing and a miss for me. They do get better later in their career, but sadly, a weak album here.
John Davidson: 38 minutes of simple party rock.
The production’s a bit rough n’ ready, and the rhythm section don’t do much beyond lay down a platform for the lead guitar and vocals, but you can’t help but nod along .
The lyrics are designed purely around singing along with your fist in the air, but Snider delivers them with enough gusto to carry you with him.
I was at university by the time this came out and thought I was too sophisticated for this sort of thing, but if it had come out in 1979 or 1980 I’d have played it to death. 7/10.
Greg Schwepe: For this week’s selection of Twisted Sister’s You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll I had to squint real hard, make a face and somehow forget their cartoonish makeup, wardrobe, and the first impression it made on me. Where makeup and outlandish costumes really worked on other bands/artists I liked (Bowie, Elton John, Kiss), for Twisted Sister it just led to me thinking they were more of a parody band. Throw in the MTV videos (yes, tongue-in-cheek funny) and I wasn’t sure what Twisted Sister was trying to be.
But it’s all about the music, right? So while listening to this I had to approach this like it was the first thing I had heard from the Dee Snider-fronted band. And hey, you have a decent album full of second-tier metal that’s got some great guitar riffs. Very Crue-ish guitar tone.
Lyrics not as cheesy as I would have expected. And Snider has a gritty “get down to it” voice. 7 out of 10 on this one for me. File this under “Pleasantly Surprised” or “You Can’t Judge A Book By It’s Cover.”
Henry Martinez: To quote Niedermeyer, “Twisted Sister?!?” Yes, of course! If you were 15 years old in 1983 (like me), this was the bomb. This LP hasn’t exactly aged well, but you can’t deny the energy of You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll. One of the best mission statements in rock history. (6.0)
Adam McCann: Top album, the closest Twisted Sister came to the NWOBHM sound and a genuine heavy metal classic. Always remember that you can’t stop rock’n’roll!
Philip Qvist: While I’m more familiar with their follow-up album, Stay Hungry, I have heard a couple of songs from You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll, mainly the title track and The Kids Are Back – so this is a great time to revisit some of the band’s earlier releases.
Let’s be honest; Dee Snider and co were never going to reinvent rock music, but I don’t think that it was ever going to be an issue when you are delivering fun, entertaining and sing-along songs that gets the crowd going. On that score, Twisted Sister and this album delivers – and then some. This will never appear on many people’s essential albums list but that isn’t really the point. This is fun, loud and entertaining and for that, You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll gets a 7 from me.
Chris Elliott: Which side of the Atlantic you sit on affects how you view Twisted Sister. The US remembers Stay Hungry and the MTV hit – in the UK this and the singles were their commercial high point. My memories are a hard heavy raw energy live rather than MTV.
They were a New York club band adopted by the NWOBHM and for three years better known here than back in the US. Their debut is raw and fast – but produced on a tiny budget – Pete Way produced and Fast Eddie contributed – minor issue is it sounds like it was recorded in a cupboard. At 17 I forgave all that.
You Can’t Stop Rock ‘N’ Roll is the halfway house between the raw metal of Under the Blade and the over-produced Stay Hungry – the singles were heavier prototypes for the MTV hit. It’s just fun – nope, it won’t change the world – but it makes it happier for 37 minutes.
I still have a love for Twisted Sister – heavy metal only makes sense when it’s loud and dumb – this defines loud dumb and catchy. They were also a truly great live band in this era – packing out clubs in the whole when they really were a force of nature.
They were the obvious link between NWOBHM and the glam that followed.
Andrew Cumming: An underestimated force in the rise of glam metal, Twisted Sister had all the ingredients that made Motley Crue and Ratt etc successful – makeup-wearing, riff-driven, anthemic, dumb-lyriced metal. Their trump card was Dee Snider – a big and engaging personality, but with a genuinely great voice. When they’re good they’re great.
Songs like The Kids Are Back are up there with the best of the genre. Unfortunately, there’s a frustrating mix of great and bit dull on this album. Too many songs aren’t bad, but they’re just not great. That said, The Kids Are Back, I Am (I’m Me) and the title track are fantastic songs and deserve to be considered amongst the best of the genre. And a couple I didn’t know – We’re Gonna Make It, I’ve Had Enough – were pleasant surprises. Good not great. But proves the point that dumb done well is lots of fun.
Final score: 7.44 (58 votes cast, total score 432)
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“It’s the age of unreason… You can tackle it in a Roger Waters style, but you’ll alienate people. Music should bring people together”: How Big Big Train took on modern issues in old ways on Grimspound
(Image credit: James Sharrock)
Quintessential Englishness, astrology and crows: less than a year since ninth album Folklore helped them clean up at 2016’s Prog Awards, Big Big Train returned with Grimspound. Greg Spawton and the late David Longdon told Prog about the record.
In the grounds of Nottingham Castle stands the statue of an airman with an angel at his shoulder. Erected in 1921, it’s resisted the decades of wind and rain, even if the bronze detail of biplanes on the plinth is beginning to lose its battle with the elements.
The man depicted is Captain Albert Ball VC, a World War I fighter pilot from Nottingham. At a time when military men were heroes, Ball was the equivalent of a rock star. He was a hyper-efficient killing machine – during his brief 14-month career, he shot down 44 enemy planes. But he was a man of letters too; a quiet, reserved thinker who questioned the morality of war.
Like so many of his compatriots, his career was fatally cut short over the fields of northern France. He may have been shot down by an enemy plane or he may have lost control of his aircraft – no one can say for sure. He reportedly died in the arms of a young Frenchwoman, Mme Lieppe-Coulon. He was just 20.
Ball provides the inspiration for Brave Captain, the opening track on Big Big Train’s 10th album, Grimspound. David Longdon, the band’s singer, flautist and all-round multi-instrumentalist, vividly remembers first seeing the statue when he was seven years old.
“Albert was a local hero,” says the Nottinghamshire-born Longdon. “My father was in the RAF, and he was the one telling me about this dashing young airman standing there. You have that triangulation – him, the statue and me. The song is a 51-year-old man looking at what a seven-year-old boy is looking at. I’m older, the statue is older; but Albert is still the same. It’s about the passage of time.”
As with so much of the band’s work, both Brave Captain and Grimspound itself delve deep into Britain’s past in search of forgotten folklore and lost heroes, turning reality into myth and vice versa. The subjects they write about are in danger of being lost in the eddies of mainstream culture, saved only by the likes of Longdon and his bandmate, bassist and founder Greg Spawton.
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We’re sitting in the Old Bank Of England, a beautifully grand pub on London’s Fleet Street, with a history that stretches back to the 15th century. Reputedly built on the site of the shop owned by Sweeney Todd, the infamous Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, it’s precisely the kind of location you’d find in a Big Big Train song.
Longdon has travelled down from Nottingham, and Spawton up from his home in Bournemouth. Geographical separation seems to be one of the band’s defining characteristics: guitarist Rikard Sjöblom lives in Sweden while drummer Nick D’Virgilio resides in Indiana (the eight-piece’s remaining members are based in Britain).
Physical separation hasn’t slowed their work rate. Grimspound is their second album in just over a year, following on from 2016’s Folklore. Where its predecessor drew musically and lyrically on the folk heritage of the British Isles, Grimspound returns to the band’s prog roots.
Experimental Gentlemen (Part Two: Merchants of Light) – YouTube
“We’re totally proud to be defined as a progressive rock band,” says Spawton, who’s been steering the band since he founded it in 1990. “Ten or 15 years ago it was the genre that dare not speak its name. Now there’s much less of an issue with that. For us, it’s a genre where you can let yourself run free, and that’s what we did on this album: we let the songs play out and draw to their natural conclusion.”
What it does share with Folklore – and with every album since 2009’s The Underfall Yard, Longdon’s debut with the band – is a propensity towards story songs. Whether it’s Albert Ball in Brave Captain or ghostly fireside tale The Ivy Gate (featuring a guest appearance from original Fairport Convention singer Judy Dyble), their most memorable songs are driven through historical or mythological narratives – or sometimes a conflation of both.
The weird thing is that it seems to connect with people who aren’t from England
Greg Spawton
“Those songs dial into a great tradition of folk music,” says Spawton. “Folk music is based on story songs – and some of those are incredibly bleak as well. But our story songs capture personal stuff too.”
There’s a very identifiable Englishness to Big Big Train. It’s not the Englishness of Nigel Farage or crusty old colonels reading the Daily Telegraph in their conservatories (“We’re definitely not Little Englanders,” says Spawton firmly). Instead, it’s the Englishness of Peter Gabriel, nature author Robert McFarlane or comic book legend Neil Gaiman – fascinated by the past but conscious of the present, and proudly eccentric with it.
“People write about what they know,” Longdon says. “Being brought up in small-town England, you have this connection with the landscape and with communities.”
“And the weird thing is that it seems to connect with people who aren’t from England,” says Spawton. “There’s something about the songs that speaks to people who were brought up in, say, a mining town in Germany. England is a funny old place. Perhaps it’s because of the old empire days, but it does still speak to the world at large. Maybe our songs help to continue the impression people have.”
There’s another, more visual connection between Grimspound and Folklore: the crow that adorns both of the album covers. It’s an image that brings together nature, ancient history, astrology and astronomy. The song Grimspound was inspired by an ancient settlement on Dartmoor, itself named after the raven-carrying Anglo-Saxon god Grim (according to some experts, a nickname for Woden, or Odin in Norse mythology). It was written for Folklore, but didn’t fit in with the themes of that album, so the band held it over for the follow-up.
It’s very hard not to be engaged in the 21st century. I think it’s riveting what’s happening at the moment
David Longdon
“[Cover artist] Sarah Ewing painted the crow. She asked me, ‘What’s it called?’ And I thought. I said, ‘Grimspound.’ It’s such a brilliant name for a crow. It sounds like something out of Gormenghast. And the crow has always had a lot of symbolism – in certain folklores, they’re the carriers of souls. They travel between the lands of the living and the lands of the dead. And they can bring somebody back.”
“And there’s a constellation, Corvus – the crow – which ties in with astronomy and astrology,” adds Spawton. “Astrology is the idea of ‘as above, so below’ – the stars affect our destiny. The Corvus constellation will somehow affect things.”
The web of interconnecting stories and mythologies that Big Big Train have created for themselves is a gloriously vivid realm. But it could also be viewed as a bubble they have built around themselves to keep the real world at bay. It’s an idea that both members shoot down instantly.
“When you write about the past, you’re writing about the modern world, because we are people of our time,” says the singer. “It’s very hard not to be engaged in the 21st century. I think it’s riveting what’s happening at the moment within the world. Amazing stuff. Off-the-scale stuff.”
So why not write about it directly? “Well, we do obliquely,” says Spawton. “A Mead Hall In Winter, on the new album, is about the Enlightenment – 150 years of deep thinking that led to modern democracy. But it’s also despairing of how things are now. That was the Age Of Reason. Now we’re in the Age Of Unreason. All the stuff that’s out there at the moment… there’ll be a tax on free speech soon.
“But there are different ways of tackling it. You can do it in a Roger Waters style, head-on. The danger there is that you alienate people, and one of the purposes of music is to bring people together. But you can draw on past lessons to write about current affairs, without alienating people or dating it. If we wrote an album about Brexit or Donald Trump, in 10 years’ time it would be a period piece.”
We’re a castle industry… it’s strengthened our band immeasurably to have total control. Plus you’re not being bled dry by a label
Greg Spawton
It’s a fair point. And it’s not as if Big Big Train are completely disconnected from the real world. They’re engaged enough to be aware of the pitfalls of the modern music industry, keeping all the important things in-house, whether that’s releasing their records themselves or forgoing a traditional manager. It’s not inaccurate to call them a cottage industry – one that’s had an extra wing added here and there over the last few years.
“We’re a fortified cottage industry!” says Longdon with a laugh.
“A castle industry!” adds Spawton. “I think five or six years ago we would have shied away from that description. I wouldn’t want to have revealed so much of that side of things. But it’s strengthened our band immeasurably to have total control. Plus you’re not being bled dry by a record label.”
That control extends most noticeably to the band’s approach to live shows. In August 2015, they played three spectacular concerts at London’s Kings Place – their first public gigs in 17 years. Recorded and released as A Stone’s Throw From The Line, it bagged them a Prog Award in 2016 for Best Live Event (they picked up another award the same night for Band Of The Year).
They’ll build on those appearances with another trio of shows at London’s grand Cadogan Hall this September, plus they’re currently in talks to appear at the Night Of The Prog Festival in Loreley, Germany in 2018. Are this once gig-shy band unexpectedly about to turn into a global touring monster? Apparently not.
We could play the Frog & Trumpet every Thursday, but we probably wouldn’t get many people after a few weeks
David Longdon
“It takes a lot of planning and economics to put on our shows,” says Spawton. “We tend to hire expensive venues; our drummer lives in America and one of our guitarists lives in Sweden, so you have to fly people over and find somewhere to rehearse where you can accommodate eight people plus a string section, plus a brass section. And it’s got to be good. Anything we do live costs a fortune.”
“We could play the Frog & Trumpet every Thursday,” says Longdon. “But we probably wouldn’t get many people after a few weeks.”
It’s probably for the best that BBT have no plans to transform themselves into a live behemoth. Their plates are full enough as it is with Grimspound, plus the ongoing Station Masters project, which sees the current line-up revisiting tracks from the band’s distant past. And then there’s the upkeep of the magical-realistic world they have built and continue to build. The future – just like the past – is bright.
Dave Everley has been writing about and occasionally humming along to music since the early 90s. During that time, he has been Deputy Editor on Kerrang! and Classic Rock, Associate Editor on Q magazine and staff writer/tea boy on Raw, not necessarily in that order. He has written for Metal Hammer, Louder, Prog, the Observer, Select, Mojo, the Evening Standard and the totally legendary Ultrakill. He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago.
The momentous occasion has previously been enough to coax musicians out of retirement or back together after years of estrangement. When Judas Priest performed at their 2022 induction, they did so with former guitarist K.K. Downing, who left the band in 2011.
It’s just one of several examples of mending fences in the name of rock. The 2025 Rock Hall class has the potential for a few such reunions, with varying degrees of likelihood.
Read on to see three huge reunions that could happen at the 2025 Rock Hall ceremony.
Soundgarden
Any Soundgarden “reunion” comes with the obvious caveat that it won’t include late frontman Chris Cornell, who died in 2017. But a partial reunion featuring guitarist Kim Thayil, drummer Matt Cameron and bassist Ben Shepherd isn’t out of the question.
The surviving members of Soundgarden reunited in 2019 for the “I Am the Highway” tribute concert to Cornell, and again in December 2024 to play a benefit show under the anagram Nudedragons, joined by Seattle singer Shaina Shepherd. They’ve all expressed a desire to continue working together and honor Cornell’s legacy. “We’re going through natural healing, then thinking about the natural next step,” Shepherd said in 2018.
Thayil also acknowledged the significance of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame after the band’s 2023 nomination. “If you’re a fan, it’s a validation of your choices and your appraisals in your musical tastes,” he said. “So that changed my understanding of it, and made me realize it’s important.”
A Rock Hall reunion, however brief, could offer a sense of catharsis and validation for both the remaining members of Soundgarden and their legion of fans. “Now that Chris is gone, it’s even more important,” Thayil said. “It’s for Chris’s memory and the band’s legacy. And for our fans – for the love and commitment they’ve shown us for all these decades.”
The White Stripes
Since breaking up in 2011, the White Stripes‘ Jack and Meg White have taken polar opposite career paths. The former has continued to release music and tour at a relentless pace as a solo artist and member of the Raconteurs and Dead Weather, while the latter retired from music and retreated from the public eye to her native Detroit.
“I don’t think anyone talks to Meg,” White told Rolling Stone in 2014. “She’s always been a hermit.” As for their different perspectives on making music and overall demeanors? “We’d be working in the studio and something amazing would happen: I’m like, ‘Damn, we just broke into a new world right there!’ And Meg’s sitting in silence.”
Although White has always been quick to defend his ex-wife and bandmate’s musical contributions (including in a 2023 social media episode regarding Meg’s skills behind the kit), Meg’s staunch refusal to do interviews and apparent disillusionment with the music industry makes a White Stripes Rock Hall reunion seem especially unlikely.
The band’s frontman has expressed ambivalence over the institution as well, telling WRIF’s Meltdown in 2022: “I haven’t really thought about that. I mean, you know, all the awards are political, really. So it’s hard to really grasp any real thought about what they actually mean. You know, maybe it should be called the Music Museum instead.”
Outkast
It’s been nearly two decades since Atlanta hip-hop duo Outkast released their last studio album, 2006’s Idlewild — a commercial comedown following the 2003 diamond-selling smash Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Andre 3000 and Big Boi embarked on a festival-circuit reunion tour in 2014, headlining massive gatherings such as Coachella, Austin City Limits and more. Fast-forward a decade, however, and new music doesn’t seem to be in the cards.
“I’ll say maybe 10, 15 years ago, in my mind, I thought an Outkast album would happen,” Andre told Rolling Stone in December 2024. “I don’t know the future, but I can say that we’re further away from it than we’ve ever been. I think it’s a chemistry thing. We have to be wanting to do it. It’s hard for me to make a rap, period, you know? And sometimes I’m in the belief of ‘Let things be.'”
Outkast expressed their gratitude for their Rock Hall nomination in a joint Instagram post. While Andre declined to comment further on the nomination, Big Boi — who helped induct Kate Bush in 2023 — told Vulture that he would “definitely” attend the ceremony if the duo was inducted.
“It’s like the last Infinity Stone in my Thanos glove. It’s not even something I thought was on the table when we started making music,” he said. “When you think about the Rock Hall, you think of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, and all of these legendary rock bands. It’s been cool to see them move into other genres and it’s a huge honor to be considered alongside people I’ve admired since I was a kid.”
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Producer Thom Bell, pianist Nicky Hopkins and bassist Carol Kaye will be honored with the Musical Excellence Award. Finally, producer and music industry executive Lenny Waronker will be this year’s Ahmet Etregun Award winner.
It may be a while before we know which, if any, of the inductees will be performing at the event. Bad Company’s surviving members have not performed together since 2019. Soundgarden broke up after the 2017 death of singer Chris Cornell, and the White Stripes parted ways in 2011. Joe Cocker died in 2014, and Warren Zevon in 2003.
You Can Watch the Rock Hall Ceremony Live on Disney+
The ceremony will air live on Saturday, Nov. 8 at an as-yet unannounced time from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The ceremony will stream in full live on Disney+, and be available to stream on Hulu the next day. An edited version of the ceremony will air on ABC at a later date.
If you’d prefer to attend in person, you’ll have to wait a bit longer, as the Rock Hall’s press release says details on ticket sales won’t be announced until a later date. They do note that “select Rock & Roll Hall of Fame donors and members receive exclusive induction ticket opportunities,” and that you have until June 30 to donate if you would like to be eligible for those offers.
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Meanwhile, the Musical Influence Awards will be going to Salt-N-Pepa and Warren Zevon, while the Musical Excellence Awards are given to Thom Bell, Nicky Hopkins and Carol Kaye. Finally, Lenny Waronker will be given the Ahmet Ertegun Award.
But when it comes to the core seven performer inductees, we’ve got some thoughts. Below, members of UCR’s staff discuss the snubs and surprises in this year’s class.
1) Who is the most surprising inductee?
Michael Gallucci: Chubby Checker — I figured the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame had given up years ago on inducting the second and third tier of artists from the music’s first few years. Isn’t that where they pull the Musical Influence Award winners from?
Bryan Rolli: My knee-jerk reaction was Chubby Checker, but I don’t think you nominate someone for the first time after 40 years of eligibility without a motive. No, honestly, I’m most surprised by Soundgarden. They’re a no-brainer for the Rock Hall, and long-overdue — which is exactly why I half-expected to see them get passed over for another year, especially when they were up against several other formidable ’90s and ’00s rock acts like Oasis, the Black Crowes and the White Stripes.
Matt Wardlaw: Joe Cocker. I realize he got the big promotional push this year from a bunch of different artists. I’m a longtime fan and he deserves his spot, but there are so many artists (as always) who are not in, I figured he’d probably be stuck on that list of non-inductees forever. I’m sad he isn’t still here to get this recognition personally.
Matthew Wilkening: Chubby Checker, but that’s largely a function of this being a very agreeable class. To answer that question this year you’ve got to nitpick, and he’s essentially a one-hit wonder. A very important one hit wonder, but not quite a match for this career-oriented honor. He’d be perfect for that singles category they introduced (and seemingly abandoned) a few years ago. But really I could care less, it’s not like Checker or any of rock’s early pioneers got anywhere near the respect they deserved while they were alive.
Corey Irwin: Salt-N-Pepa. I like “Shoop” and “Push It” as much as the next guy, but this one was totally out of left field for me. The hip-hop group has been eligible since 2012, but never so much as appeared on the ballot. In fact, I can’t recall ever even seeing them named in any “most snubbed” lists that annually make the rounds. They’re getting in under the always-mysterious Musical Influence Award, which means some pretty loud arguments must have been made behind the scenes.
Nick DeRiso: The easy answer is Chubby Checker, a novelty act from forever ago. The correct answer is White Stripes, a nervy group that led a very welcome return to stripped-down basics. At the same time, however, they had a shooting-star mainstream commercial arc that was over almost as soon as it began in the early 2000s. The Rock Hall hasn’t shown much interest in things of such recent vintage.
Allison Rapp: I think it’s got to be Chubby Checker. He’s fully deserving, mind you, but there were definitely other names on the nominee list that I thought were more likely to be chosen, at least in the performer category.
2) Who is the most surprising exclusion?
Gallucci:Joy Division/New Order — These two bands have influenced more artists and had more of an impact on where music headed than most of the acts being inducted this year.
Rolli: I’m shocked Oasis didn’t make the cut in light of their upcoming reunion tour and general headline-grabbing antics. Prickly, snot-nosed rockers with an anti-establishment streak who are nonetheless adored by critics, finally burying the hatchet to enjoy a stadium-sized victory lap? ChatGPT couldn’t write a better narrative.
Matt Wardlaw: There is so much hate from the critics that I saw circulating regarding Phish. They’ve been dismissed for too many reasons for far too long. To address one point, they have more than proven that they are not just a band that got really lucky when the Grateful Dead stopped touring due to the death of Jerry Garcia. There’s actual talent there and a lot of it. The fact that they were the top choice on the fan vote is the latest visible validation on why they deserved to be inducted and it’s a shame that critical bias kept them off the final list.
Wilkening: Billy Idol, the living embodiment of the ’80s. At his (admittedly rather brief) peak he blended punk, new wave and pop better than anybody this side of Prince, and was one of the early masters of MTV. Also just looking it at from a cynical point of view it seemed like the industry was primed for this to be the year of Idol’s coronation, timed perfectly to match up to his new album, a documentary and his first large-scale headlining tour in decades.
Irwin: I really thought Billy Idol would get in. He’s had some very loud supporters — including Ozzy Osbourne — and he’s seemingly played nice with the Hall, even though they waited an unreasonably long time to put him on the ballot. I still think he gets in one day, but for now the “Rebel Yell” singer remains on the outside looking in.
DeRiso: I’d hoped for Joy Division/New Order (again). Their influence and popularity seem like a match fit for Rock Hall voters. (There’d also be some induction night drama after a falling out with co-founding bassist Peter Hook. Good TV, right?) But, honestly, my hopes weren’t all that high after their snub in 2023. I thought the same thing then.
Rapp: Frankly, I’m a bit surprised Billy Idol didn’t make the cut. Sure, the competition was tough, but given how active he still is in the industry and the overall impact he had on punk, rock and also the world of music video-making, Idol seemed a very strong candidate. I’m also sort of surprised neither Oasis nor the Black Crowes made it in. I thought at least one tumultuous band of brothers from the ’90s would do so.
3) Who are you most glad to see get in?
Gallucci: Warren Zevon, even if he is getting on the somewhat trivial Musical Influence Award, which seems more and more like the Rock Hall’s way of righting voters’ wrongs over the years.
Rolli: It’s about time Soundgarden got their due. They’ve been eligible for 13 years, and they’re every bit as deserving as their fellow grunge inductees Nirvana and Pearl Jam. It’s bittersweet when artists are no longer around to enjoy their accolades, but Chris Cornell nonetheless deserves to be recognized on the grandest scale as a once-in-a-generation performer and vocalist.
Matt Wardlaw: Warren Zevon, Bad Company, Soundgarden and honestly, I’m happy about a lot of this class. Cyndi Lauper is a trailblazer in ways that many might not recognize. I love a lot of things about Cyndi, but for me personally, she made it feel okay to be weird and different from what is considered to be normal. I’ve got endless amounts of respect for that and so many other things.
Wilkening: Cyndi Lauper – a towering figure of the ’80s who has maintained an impressively idiosyncratic and relevant career to this day. Warren Zevon is a close second, and like Judas Priest a few years back it still stings that he didn’t get his deserved “performer category” honor.
Irwin: Soundgarden. Once Chris Cornell died, this moment was always going to be bittersweet. Still, this band definitely deserves celebrating and I’m excited to see their performance. An added bonus: With Soundgarden getting the call, perhaps the fourth member of grunge’s Mt. Rushmore can finally get consideration, Alice in Chains.
DeRiso: They had to open a back door for Warren Zevon (and Carol Kaye and Thom Bell and Nicky Hopkins), but it seems churlish after waiting through more than 30 years of eligibility. Zevon somehow wasn’t even mentioned until 2023. So to paraphrase, enjoy every sandwich – and every (checks notes) Musical Influence Award.
Rapp: Honestly, I’m glad to see Cyndi Lauper get in. (For the record, she’s one of only two women being inducted this year. Meg White of the White Stripes would be the other. Not exactly a diverse playing field on that account, but I digress.) I truly believe that you don’t get to contemporary artists like Chappell Roan or Lady Gaga, just two examples of wildly successful female pop artists who are unafraid of being themselves, without the work Lauper put in. That makes her Rock Hall worthy right there to me.
4) Two of the top three fan vote-getters didn’t get inducted. Should their votes count for more? Why or why not?
Gallucci: No. Fan campaigns stuff the ballots with undeserving acts: Just because a band has thousands of fans, it doesn’t mean they belong in the Rock Hall or are even good. Yes, Phish, this means you.
Rolli: Probably not. The fan vote is helpful for reflecting public sentiment, of which the voting committee could take note when picking their winners. But if you weigh the fan vote too heavily, you run the risk of some ridiculous viral campaign overshadowing the actual task at hand. Relate it to American electoral politics: Everybody hopes for a successful write-in campaign until they learn “Hawk Tuah Girl” may or may not have gotten 75,000 votes. And yes, in this case, Phish is Hawk Tuah Girl.
Matt Wardlaw: I don’t think it should count for more, but it is a disappointing illustration of the divide between what the voters want vs. what the fans — the people who are actually traveling to the Hall — want to see when they get there. The fan vote tends to be a pretty good barometer of how the votes might swing when the final results come out, so to see two of the top three candidates from this year get bypassed is a bummer.
Wilkening: Yes, much more. There’s a snobbery and an anti-heavy metal bias among the Rock Hall voters that needs to be counterbalanced. Give the people what they really want. Up the irons!
Irwin: No, not at all. I always compare the Rock Hall to professional sports halls of fame. Do fans have a say in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame? No. Football, basketball, hockey? No, no, no. That’s because we all know public popularity contests can be easily skewed. Now, I do believe that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s voting process could use a substantial overhaul, but that shouldn’t include adding more power to the fans.
DeRiso: The process can come embarrassingly close to a made-for-TV popularity contest. Genre slots seem to be filled simply to appeal to the widest swath of audience members. If your favorite act doesn’t fit? All the viral ballot-box stuffing (sorry, Phishheads!) in the world clearly won’t get them in.
Rapp: I mean, yes and no. No in the sense that popularity does not equate to talent or overall influence. (There is a comparison that could be made here to political campaigns. Make of that what you will.) But I also can’t help but feel a bit confused as to why the fan vote should be a part of this system at all then? If a fan vote is going to be used – and I’m not opposed to that since I do believe the relationship an artist has with their fans is important in the context of the Rock Hall — why not make a separate, less consequential category for just that?
5) What are your overall thoughts on the 2025 class?
Gallucci: It’s one of the most agreeable classes of recent years. While nobody stands out in the main category, it’s what’s expected at this point: a classic-rock favorite, a forgotten pioneer, a hip-hop act, an artist who warranted induction years ago, an artist with one great album and a couple of bands that have kept rock ‘n’ roll’s spirit alive in the ’90s and ’00s. Plus, the Musical Excellence Award winners — Thom Bell, Nicky Hopkins and Carol Kaye – are all kings and queens of their fields.
Rolli: Honestly … pretty good! The Rock Hall largely stuck to its roots while pushing the boundaries of “rock ‘n’ roll” with a few choice inclusions. Bad Company and Joe Cocker were long-overdue holdouts from the classic rock era; Soundgarden and the White Stripes are bonafide Gen X rock stars; Cyndi Lauper is an innovative pop star who embraces glam rock aesthetics; Outkast is a generation-defining hip-hop act that’s worthy of the honor; and Chubby Checker, well, he supplies the vibes. It’s enough to pacify me for a few months until I start complaining about Iron Maiden’s exclusion again.
Matt Wardlaw: Despite my feelings on how the fan vote shook out, it’s a pretty solid class when you look at the main category of performers being inducted. These are all artists who have contributed important things to the evolution of music. Like Foreigner in 2024, I wasn’t necessarily expecting to see Bad Company get the nod this year. I appreciate that. It’s also really great to see Warren Zevon get a sliver of recognition. It’s a shame that Billy Idol didn’t make the cut, but hopefully we’ll see Billy and Phish make it in next year. That would be a fun jam.
Wilkening: It’s a very respectable, easily defended group of inductees. Not sure it’s going to make for the most exciting show but then again there are three potential reunions that could turn that around pretty quick – White Stripes, Outkast and a sadly Cornell-less Soundgarden. As others have noted here, there’s a sense of demographic box-checking at play, and it’s weird that country music seems to have lost their seat at the table.
Irwin: Overall, I’m pretty excited. Several of my personal favorites made the cut, along with a couple of unexpected yet intriguing additions. There’s also a nice variety in the styles of music each honoree makes, and I think the table is set for some dynamic performances at the induction ceremony six months from now.
DeRiso: It is as it has been lately: All of the demographic boxes got checked. I’m hearted by one subplot: They reached back to classic rock’s heyday (Joe Cocker, Bad Company, Nicky Hopkins) while continuing to turn toward very worthy contributors from the more recent past (Soundgarden, Cyndi Lauper, White Stripes). Maybe that bolsters Oasis’ next candidacy.
Rapp: I’d say this is a pretty safe class of inductees, there’s a little something of everything. Am I wowed? No. Do I think all of the inductees are worthy? Yes. Am I looking forward to seeing what kind of ceremony show this lineup puts on? For sure. Will I campaign harder for Oasis next year? Definitely maybe.
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