Ozzy’s RRHOF Induction to Feature Billy Idol, Jack Black and More
· Ultimate Classic RockThe Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has announced an all-star lineup of musicians spanning decades and genres to honor Ozzy Osbourne at his upcoming induction.
The institution revealed on Thursday via social media that Billy Idol, Chad Smith, Wolfgang Van Halen, Zakk Wylde, Tool's Maynard James Keenan, Robert Trujillo, Steve Stevens, producer Andrew Watt, country star Jelly Roll and Jack Black would all take part in honoring the Prince of Darkness.
Osbourne will enter the Rock Hall as a solo artist this month, marking his second enshrinement after being inducted as a member of Black Sabbath in 2006. He'll be joined by Mary J. Blige, Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Kool & the Gang and A Tribe Called Quest. The metal legend told Billboard earlier this year that his latest induction "feels different ... because my solo career, it's been a much larger part of my overall music career as a whole."
READ MORE: All-Star Lineups Announced for Rock Hall Induction Ceremony
Will Ozzy Osbourne Perform at the Rock Hall Induction Ceremony?
The question on many rock fans' minds is whether Osbourne will perform at the Rock Hall induction ceremony, which takes place in a little over two weeks. He's yet to commit to such a performance publicly, telling Billboard back in April, "You never know." Around that time, he also told his Ozzy Speaks co-host Billy Morrison: "I'd like to do a gig without falling over now [but] one surgeon [is] taking his time" with giving him the green light to perform.
Nevertheless, Osbourne is humbled and excited by the induction and the all-star cast of musicians paying tribute to him. He also hopes that some of the band members eventually enjoy the same fate as him.
"Billy Idol is a rock icon," Osbourne told Rolling Stone. "His music is timeless. Billy Idol should be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame."
How Can I Watch the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony?
The 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place on Oct. 19 at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland.
The event will stream live on Disney+ at 7 p.m. EDT and will be available to stream on-demand afterward. Highlights from the event will be broadcast during a TV special titled 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, which airs on Jan. 1 on ABC.
Iron Maiden
Perhaps the Rock Hall's most egregious metal snub, Iron Maiden have influenced countless metal acts over the past four decades with their dueling guitar leads, galloping rhythms and singer Bruce Dickinson's soaring, multi-octave vocals. Dialing up the technical finesse and raw aggression of heavy metal forebears Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, Maiden released one classic album after another in the '80s, spawning metal anthems such as "The Number of the Beast," "Run to the Hills" and "The Trooper," to name a select few. More than 40 years into their career, Maiden show no signs of slowing down, conquering stadiums around the world with their elaborate set designs and tireless stage presence.
Dio
It's criminal that Ronnie James Dio wasn't inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Black Sabbath, as he helped rescue the metal pioneers from the brink of destruction with a pair of great post-Ozzy Osbourne albums, 1980's Heaven and Hell and 1981's Mob Rules. It's equally ludicrous that the Hall has yet to recognize Dio's solo band, whose 1983 debut Holy Diver remains one of the genre's greatest and most influential albums. (Its successor, 1984's The Last in Line, is nothing to scoff at either.) Factor in Dio's excellent work with Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, and you've got three arguments for the diminutive, golden-voiced singer's inclusion in the Rock Hall — but none more than his own band.
Motley Crue
Motley Crue did what few of their poufy-haired peers managed to do: They survived. These spandex-clad street urchins graduated to top of the '80s hard-rock heap thanks to a seemingly endless stream of pop-metal anthems that boasted harder riffs and smarter hooks than nearly anything coming from the Sunset Strip at the time. They weathered the grunge storm and lineup changes in the '90s and came back swinging in the 2000s with a string of increasingly elaborate tours, and they gained a whole new audience thanks to Netflix's hugely successful adaptation of their scandalous memoir, The Dirt. This sort of longevity and pop savvy deserves recognition, and Motley Crue belong in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame alongside Bon Jovi, Def Leppard and Guns N' Roses.
Motorhead
Few artists have epitomized rock ’n’ roll’s outlaw attitude like Motorhead. With snarling, whiskey-swilling frontman Lemmy Kilmister at the helm, the British power trio created a pulverizing punk-metal hybrid with overdriven, hyper-speed riffs and gut-busting double-bass drum blasts. Proto-speed metal classics like "Overkill" and "Ace of Spades" influenced countless thrash and hardcore acts in the decades to follow, from Metallica to Napalm Death to Venom. Yet despite his influence on the genre, Kilmister never identified with metal, instead making his allegiances clear at the start of every show: “We are Motorhead and we play rock n' roll.”
Slayer
Slayer didn't just influence extreme metal; they invented it. The thrash-metal quartet played harder and faster than its Big 4 brethren, raising the bar for brutality and songcraft on 1986's Reign in Blood, which remains the quintessential thrash album more than 35 years after its release. Slayer's dizzying guitar riffs, bludgeoning double-bass assault, grisly lyrics and graphic imagery all paved the way for death metal, and they cemented the band's legacy as one of the best and biggest extreme acts of all time.
Megadeth
If Metallica consummated thrash metal's commercial peak with 1991's Black Album, then Megadeth brought the subgenre to its creative apex with their 1990 magnum opus Rust in Peace. Surly frontman Dave Mustaine offered a grittier, more technically demanding take on the subgenre than his ex-bandmates, recruiting a revolving door of virtuoso guitarists to bring his post-apocalyptic visions to life. From the punky, piss-and-vinegar attack of "Peace Sells" to the throbbing, hooky grooves of "Symphony of Destruction," Megadeth pushed the boundaries of thrash and enjoyed considerable commercial success along the way, racking up a series of gold and platinum albums in the '80s and '90s. They never matched the mainstream success of Metallica, but Megadeth's contributions to the genre are equally important and deserve to be enshrined in the Rock Hall.
Pantera
With one middle finger wrapped around the neck of a beer bottle and the other lifted proudly against the early-‘90s grunge and alternative storm, the members of Pantera rewrote the heavy metal playbook with their slabs-of-steel riffing, pile-driving grooves and sandblasted, bile-spewing vocals. Their 1990 opus Cowboys From Hell single-handedly hoisted groove-metal into the mainstream, while 1994’s Far Beyond Driven became the first extreme metal album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Frontman Phil Anselmo's venomous screeds became gospel for millions of disaffected teens, while “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott’s blazing chromatic shredding and harmonic squeals made him the most revolutionary guitarist in heavy metal since Eddie Van Halen. For the Rock Hall, this one's a no-brainer.
Soundgarden
Although they earned a place among grunge's Mount Rushmore, Soundgarden traversed several genres throughout their career, from anthemic alt-rock to trippy psychedelia to heavy metal. Just listen to the doom-laden stomp of "Slaves & Bulldozers" or the down-tuned sludge of "4th of July" for proof of their metallic bonafides. Factor in tens of millions of records sold worldwide and a once-in-a-generation vocal talent in Chris Cornell, and Soundgarden should have been a no-brainer for immediate Rock Hall induction.
Scorpions
Scorpions were already on their way to becoming elder statesmen of rock by the time they pierced the mainstream with ‘80s blockbuster albums Blackout and Love at First Sting. Klaus Meine’s thundering vocals and the twin-guitar attack of Matthias Jabs and Rudolph Schenker cemented “No One Like You” and “Rock You Like a Hurricane” in the pantheon of all-time rock anthems, and the band even got political on the 1990 mega-ballad “Wind of Change,” inspired by the end of the Cold War and fall of the Berlin Wall in their native Germany. Scorpions influenced next-generation rockers from Motley Crue to Metallica, and their musical legacy and commercial success deserve to be memorialized in the Rock Hall.
Anthrax
With their impish sense of humor and affinity for satirical comic book antiheroes, Anthrax are often written off as the immature, younger cousins of the Big 4. But don't think for a second that they can't rage with the best of 'em. Spreading the Disease, Among the Living and Persistence of Time are stone-cold thrash metal classics, teeming with barbed-wire riffs, gut-busting hardcore drumming and searing screams from frontman Joey Belladonna, who spits cartoonish horror stories and gritty social commentary in equal measure. Anthrax weathered lineup changes and shifting music industry trends, and late-career triumphs like 2011's Worship Music and 2016's For All Kings proved they'd entered middle age with their dignity and brutality intact.