Bon Jovi, the Cars in Rock Hall 2018 class
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Dire Straits, Moody Blues, Nina Simone also inducted
New Jersey rock group Bon Jovi and its fans can stop living on a prayer: the band is headed into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, along with the Cars, Dire Straits, the Moody Blues, Nina Simone and pioneering gospel singer-guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
The Cleveland-based institution unveiled its newest roster of inductees on Wednesday morning, adding another handful of honourees to more than 300 previous inductees.
The six inductees were chosen from a group of 19 nominees, including Radiohead, who were expected to enter the Rock Hall in their first year of eligibility but didn’t make it. Other failed nominees include Judas Priest and Kate Bush.
Tharpe, a pioneering guitarist who performed gospel music and was known to some as “the godmother of rock ’n’ roll,” will be inducted with the “Award for Early Influence.” She died in 1973. The other five acts will be inducted as performers.
The jazzy and soulful Simone, also a first-time nominee, was a leader in pushing for civil rights and influenced the likes of Alicia Keys and Aretha Franklin before her death in 2003.
She was the subject of an acclaimed 2015 documentary What Happened, Miss Simone? that helped refresh voters’ memories of her deeply emotive vocal style.
The induction of veteran English art-rock band the Moody Blues will quell a raft of fans who have consistently made their voices heard each year the group was overlooked.
Although the Moodys became eligible in 1989, under the hall’s requirement that 25 years elapse after an act’s first recording, the group perhaps best known for its 1967 ambitious and heavily orchestrated concept album Days of Future Passed and the single it yielded, “Nights in White Satin,” appeared on the nominees list for the first time this year.
The Cars, founded in Boston in 1976, combined New Wave and classic rock sounds. This year marked the band’s third nomination.
Bon Jovi, first nominated in 2011, and again this year, have sold more than 120 million albums and launched No. 1 hits with “Livin’ on a Prayer,” “You Give Love a Bad Name,” “Bad Medicine” and “I’ll Be There for You.”
In an interview Wednesday, Jon Bon Jovi said the news was “wonderful. It’s rewarding. It’s humbling.”
“I didn’t know how long things would last because I never envisioned 35 years later. I could have never dreamt of that,” he added.
He will be inducted alongside current bandmates David Bryan and Tico Torres, as well as former members Richie Sambora and Alec John Such. Sambora left in 2013; Such left in 1994. The frontman said he and the other current members haven’t spo- ken to Sambora since he left the group four years ago, but he invites the performer, along with Such, to be part of the Rock Hall festivities.
“(Sambora) had things he had to deal with and (he) didn’t show up anymore. I respect that,” Bon Jovi said. “He’s absolutely invited and will be asked to participate in every aspect, including the performance, as will Alex Such . . . and they’ll be able to join the band, the current band, onstage. They’ll be most welcomed.”
Rock Hall voters have recently opened their hearts to progressive rockers, which benefited the Moody Blues. English rockers Dire Straits, which includes brothers Mark and David Knopfler, blended blues into their music.
Each year, between five and seven acts usually make it into the Rock Hall following a vote by 1,000 people, including performers, music historians and industry experts. Fans also were able to vote on the Rock Hall’s website. All of the inductees had to have released their first recording no later than 1992 to be eligible.
Bon Jovi topped the fan balloting with 1.16 million votes, followed by the Moody Blues (947,000 votes), Dire Straits (613,000), the Cars (552,000) and the only fan favourite that didn’t make the final cut, heavy metal band Judas Priest, which collected 538,000 fan votes.