More than 100 years of music history is showcased in the next Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee class, spanning a variety of genres, cultures and styles.
On Saturday, Nov. 5, the Rock Hall will welcome this year’s inductees at its annual induction ceremony event, this year taking place in Los Angeles. The class of 14 inductees can be separated into two loose groups: Performers include Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, Duran Duran, Eminem, Eurythmics, Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie and Carly Simon, and other honorees include Judas Priest, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Harry Belafonte, Elizabeth Cotten, Allen Grubman, Jimmy Iovine and Sylvia Robinson.
“One of the things that really stands out is the span in time of the artists that are represented. We go as far back as Elizabeth Cotten at the turn of the 20th century, up through Eminem who has just been recently eligible to be inducted after the 25-year period you have to go through,” says Joe Wickens, the museum’s collections and exhibitions manager. “[We] have artists that represent music from over 100 years of time.”
The ceremony will be available to stream on Nov. 19 on HBO Max, but before that, the Rock Hall has opened its 2022 inductee exhibit. There, you’ll find outfits, handwritten lyrics, instruments and other unique artifacts from each of this year’s inductees, in a small third-floor exhibit space near its ever-expanding signature plaque wall for all inductees.
Highlights from the new inductee exhibit include Eminem’s handwritten lyrics to “Stan,” Cotten’s guitars, studded black leather outfits from Judas Priest and a saxophone with Parton’s pink lipstick still smudged on its mouthpiece. Find a local connection through Giraldo, a Parma native, and a gold record that was gifted to him and Benatar from Cleveland radio station WMMS.
“I think that the disparate styles, both aesthetically in their gowns and their look but also sonically, in their music — having them all share the same gallery and be in close proximity and get honored together, I think that sort of highlights what rock and roll is, more broadly,” Wickens says. “It’s not one thing. It’s a culmination, a conglomeration of blues and jazz and gospel and folk and bluegrass. All those different threads of music came together to create rock and roll. I think this class kind of exemplifies that.”
When you go: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, 1100 E. 9th St., Cleveland, 216-781-7625, rockhall.com.
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