2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction: The Best Moments

Liberal in its selection as always or not, the 39th Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony certainly went all out, transforming Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio into a “celebration” on Saturday night. 

The event was back at the Rock & Roll Museum’s homebase for the first time in 2021. In the performer category, the recipient of this year’s top music-industry honor was Mary J. Blige, Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Kool and the Gang, Ozzy Osbourne and A Tribe Called Quest. Jimmy Buffett, MC5, Dionne Warwick Norman Whitfiled were honored with the Musical Excellence Award while Alexis Korner, John Mayall, Big Mama Thornton were honored with Musical Influence Awards. Only five women have ever been honoured at the ceremony with the Ahmet Ertegun Award, the most recent recipient being Motown executive Suzanne de Passe.

Four out of the eight inductees in the performer category were on the ballot for the first time: Steve Marriott [of Humble Pie], Cher, Foreigner, Kool & the Gang and Peter Frampton [of Humble Pie]. 

Well, if Matthews of the class of 2024 didn’t say ‘We are swimming in deep water here,’ then somebody did. 

The five-and-a-half-hour ceremony seamlessly foth the tears of inspiration and tributes usually delivered in typical acceptance speeches and highlight reels with entertainment that saw the audience standing up for encores. It only goes upward more so around the surprise of who will perform with who. This year saw a combination of traditional hall inductees and the subsequent generation as both Cher and Mary J. Blige were joined in their performances by Dua Lipa and Ella Mai and Lucky Daye respectively. ,Kelly Clarkson, Demi Lovato, Chad Smith, Slash and Sammy Hagar all joined in to perform foreigner songs also James Taylor, Mac McAnally and Kenny Chesney succeeded in doing so in honour of their departed friend Jimmy Buffet. The second year saw Smith back for the Ozzy Osbourne induction with Maynard James Keenan, Jelly Roll, Billy Idol and many others. Jack Black performed the sensitisation for Osbourne who watched all those antics from a “bat “chair.

Here are the performances from the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, available now for streaming on Disney+ and airing on ABC January 1st.

Cher’s Change of Heart

The programme started with Dua Lipa dressed rather provocatively in a black leather maxi dress with chains on one side with fishnet stockings singing, Cher’s “Believe”. Cher then, clad in leather chaps, came in to join Dua and twining arms, they celebrate rocking the chorus of the 1998 comeback song. Zendaya gave Cher’s introduction in a nude-illusion halter Bob Mackie dress which referenced one of the singer’s looks of 1975. The actress said of the superstar, who had not received a Hall of Fame nomination until this year: “Cher has got the goods;” drawing attention to the stat that she is the only solo artist to have a No. 1 hit in each of the last seven decades and calling her “the coolest woman on the planet.” The video tribute reel Cher did likewise included statements from Tina Turner, Cyndi Lauper and Pink.

Cher began her acceptance speech by addressing the elephant in the room: “It was easier getting divorced from two men than it was getting in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.” She has been quite frank about having been ignored for so many years by the organization, she said to Kelly Clarkson in 2022, “I wouldn’t be in it now if they gave me a million dollars.”

She had a change of heart and thanked David Geffen for taking the award to the finish line: I would like to thank my guardian, David Geffen, because he has written a letter and post it to the directors, then, here I am. Thank you, David. “I wish you thank you for caring so much about me was more appropriate.”

That was the essence of her whole address, and her theme was resilience. She described her career progression and volunteer work both successes and failures and she preserved dignity and esteem not tied to the fact that shew as least as beautiful, intelligent or talented as the other women participating in the event.

“I’m talking to the women,” she continued. Yes we should have been destroyed, yes we have been destroyed, yes we are nobody and yes we are still building and yes we are still somebody. We are special.”

Chuck D’s Kool-Pentameter

The lead singer of the band called the Public Enemy to induct a group who was ignored by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for a very long time: Kool & the Gang. his words was a lyrical performance in the ‘Kool’ mode, an African American soulful, funky repetitive colloquy. 

He noted that “few artists have been sampled by hip-hop producers more than Kool & the Gang” and “let it be known: this is a long overdue party,” he said the world understands that, “Y’all know the deal right, birthdays, weddings, sports, championship.” Y’all know the drill … The get down to the get down to the get down on it … What I am really trying to say, hey, hey, hey, good job is always there with us, lost within, the jungle and the calm of the jobs. Then get down to the jungle boogie, get down to the one down and jungle boogie, say ‘uh’ I wanted to rap on that record”, So instead of arguing, I came up with something way better I guess. But still more, there was more funky stuff.” 

Mark Ronson, Lionel Richie, Usher and Anderson. Paak appeared in the video that introduced him.

James J.T. Taylor and Robert ‘Kool’ Bell from Kool & the Gang sang and played “Get Down on It,” “Jungle Boogie,” “Hollywood Swinging,” “Ladies Night” and “Celebration.”

Dionne Warwick Wants Teyana Taylor to be Her Twin

Teyana Taylor, who will portray Dionne Warwick in a biopic, brought a vibe of the 1960s star complete with the bee-hive hair and wearing olive-color tasseled empire-waist gown.

“It was not until she cast me to portray her in the up coming movie of her biography, that I was to discover the extent of her skills,” Taylor adds. “She has done an incredible service to the world with her music,” she says while commemorating that “Don’t Make Me Over” as the singer’s song of liberation that transformed it to an anthem for women globally , and was relishing at the fact that Aretha Warwick displaced The Beatles. 

“I could tell that Ms Warwick did not come to play period,” Taylor says. “What the world needs today is love so nice love , but what the world needs today is more definitely more of Mrs Dionne Warwick.” 

Jennifer Hudson performed the song “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” and Warwick also performed “Walk On By.”

When Warwick received her award from Taylor, she told the audience that “ My alter ego is with me tonight.” 

The Foreigner Super Group

If there is one certainty you can always rely on, it’s that Rock and roll Hall of fame Induction ceremony will bring artists together in the most unexpected ways, 2024 was no exception as Demi Lovato, Chad smith with slash, Sammy Hagar and Kelly Clarkson performed for Foreigner although Mick Jones and Dennis Elliott were present. Lovato performed “Feels Like The First Time,” Hagar struggled with “Hot Blooded,” and Clarkson sang “I Want To Know What Love Is” along with Lou Gramm. Melanie Jones took the induction on behalf of her father, Jones, who suffered from Parkinson in 2022 forcing him to stop with performing with the group Foreigner.

It takes a terrific raconteur and musician to gracefully submit to this kind of honoring and then play a few songs to boot.

‘With Frampton still in shock at being inducted into the hall of fame at all, Daltrey had the audience in stiches as he used his speech as a roast saying, ‘I was astonished this guy wasn’t inducted 35 years ago.’ He then said that during their early groups, Pete Townshend quipped that packs of screaming females had chased after Daltrey thinking it was Frampton and Townshend mistook the latter for Tiny Tim before teasing him, that he could get on saying farewell tour endlessly. Frampton joined Keith Urban and the two played “Do You Feel Like We Do” This was the loudest guitar play of the night. 

In his acceptance speech at the end of the show, Matthews said, “God, I think the world of you”, to Frampton.

Common, De La Soul, Queen Latifah and Busta Rhymes pay tribute to A Tribe Called Quest in Concert

This one started when Dave Chappelle took the mic, as generally, he delivered arguably the most moving induction of the evening. He said to the audience that when he was in a bad state he realised there was a Chinese proverb that would warm his heart and think of his brethrens of A Tribe Called Quest. “The best meal you can cook is made with ingredients that you already have at home,” he said. 

Chappelle added: ‘Being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is not something that a Black kid in New York in 1985 would ever even imagine to dream of.’ And I don’t think that was its purpose to be A Tribe Called Quest in the first place. They met on a train. They met at school. They stayed active and played basketball. … They just used what they had. And the first thing which the two of them had was friendship.” 

He commends them for “acquiring jazz and soul before any hip-hop performer, in a creative fashion that had not been done before.”

Drawing from the rock history book, he recounted that both Red Hot Chili Peppers – ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magik’, Nirvana’s – ‘Nevermind’ and Tribe’s – ‘Low End Theory’ were released on the same date-September 24,1991. He also said that they were cool but not gangster, which gave hip-hop a new direction soon after.

Q-Tip and Jarobi White were in attendance with the late Phife Dawg’s parents and wife,; the fourth member of the group, Ali Shaheed Muhammad was a no-show. They all made speeches before the 80’s-90′s Hip hop band, Native Tongues with Busta Rhymes, Black Thought of The Roots, Queen Latifah, De La Soul and Common celebrating their partners with ‘Scenario’, ‘Bonita Applebum’ and ‘Can I Kick It?’ It was for passion for the music that Rhymes’ “Scenario” capacited the crowd in one standing.

Mary J Blige, Dr Dre and Method Man’s Mutal Admiration

For Mary J Blige, it was the turn of Dr Dre and Method Man and her performing “Love No Limit,” “Be Happy” and “Family Affair” with Lucky Daye and Ella May. Blige was oozing sex appeal in leather, latex and all those glints of stones on her head, her black royal apparel. Someone had to do it and I think it was Macy Blige when she came out with that song ‘What’s the 411’. She then proceeded to express her gratitude to Method Man and Dre stating that they accompanied her to the world of GRAMMY and EMMY with their works they prepared together; 1995’s GRAMMY Award winner of Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group song “I’ll Be There For You / You’re All I Need To Get By “and the 2022 Super Bowl Halftime show.

 Julia Roberts Takes On Internet Search: Don’t Google David Matthews

The final set was played by the Dave Matthews Band with all the band’s popular songs to the band’s famous fans induction culminating Julia Roberts google search that took a wrong turn.

“Don’t Google David Matthews,” she said that she accidentally got a wrong one on the Internet and the story was actually awful – the wrong Dave Matthew is a man from New Zealand who is sixty something and had a stroke.

Then she was able to meet the right man’ That’s not to be Googled on only to uncover – oh, friends with Adam Sandler actually didn’t know that there was no reference to – anyway, he and Ashley have a winery and good price point, cool label. Didn’t know. And then it reads, ‘When did Dave Matthews come out?’ But that refers to when the band first came out and as you know, the band. It seems as you would expect, these things happen when a band is named after the person singing or performing the song.

One of the most pleasant shocks of the night was saved for the last, and the DMB finished with Burning Down the House with a reference to Speaking in Tongues by Talking Heads.

The criteria for induction to the Hall of Fame is that the artist or band had to have released their first official recording 25 years before the year of the nomination.