The 31st Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony was held on Friday, April 8 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, New York. As we all know, this year’s inductees are Cheap Trick, Chicago, Deep Purple, N.W.A. and Steve Miller. In addition, the special guests list was also quite long and it included names such as Rob Thomas, The Black Keys, Kid Rock, Lars Ulrich, Kendrick Lamar and many more. We, the fans, were anticipating the event and looking forward to see what is going to happen on that stage. Once more, the organization was brilliant and there were many surprises, touching speeches and amazing performances. The following publication will present some highlights from the event, including video materials.
Huge thanks to all the people who uploaded videos and pictures from the ceremony! I hope YouTube doesn’t mute or delete the videos!
The 2016 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony opened with a surprise tribute to David Bowie. David Byrne from Talking Heads, pop star Kimbra and hip-hop troupe the Roots teamed up and outstandingly honored David by performing “Fame” – a song from Bowie’s 1975 album “Young Americans”.
Deep Purple gave an emotional speech, as they took on the stage, along with new inductees David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes. Later on, they also performed a few of their classics with the current band lineup, featuring guitarist Steve Morse and keyboardist Don Airey, vocalist Ian Gillan, bassist Roger Glover and drummer Ian Paice. Ritchie Blackmore got an honorable mention too…(*)
Theo Wargo, Getty Images
Watch Lars Ulrich praising Deep Purple’s legacy and influence in the following induction speech.
The Black Keys were the ones to include the outstanding Steve Miller into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during the ceremony this Friday. They referred to him as “one of the most iconic and lasting songwriters of a generation.”
The highlight of their speech was their conclusion – “With over 30 million albums sold, Steve Miller should have his own damn parking spot at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame if he wants it.”
Watch Steve Miller‘s induction speech and performances below ( He is such a brilliant guitarist )… I really enjoyed his speech and I think his conclusion was rather strong: “I wanna thank all the women in my life for pointing me in the right direction,” he said.
Kevin Kane, Getty Images
Glenn Frey was also remembered during the ceremony in another surprise tribute. Sheryl Crow and Grace Potter impressed everyone by performing a stripped-down version of Eagles’ “New Kid In Town”. I think what they did was truly amazing and more importantly, managed quite successfully to capture the spirit of the Eagles.
Chicago were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Rob Thomas. After that they took the stage and blew our minds off by performing some of their biggest classics – “Saturday in the Park” and “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”.
Watch the speeches and performances below:
Cheap Trick were inducted by none other than Kid Rock.
“There isn’t a band in this room that doesn’t think it’s really a live band,” Rock said. “You think you do it better than anyone else. Then you go and see Cheap Trick. That’s when you think, ‘Man, we kinda suck. I better step up my game.”
You can also watch the ceremony on HBO:
Credits:
Rock Hall 2016 related articles, retrieved from http://ultimateclassicrock.com
Photos taken from Rock Hall Official Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/rock_hall
P.S. I don’t own any audio or visual material used in this publication. All the credits and rights go to the owners and/or publishers.
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