Byrne, May, Styles tapped to welcome Hall of Fame inductees
Los Angeles Times
Rock goddess Stevie Nicks will be ushered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for a second time on March 29 by former One Direction heartthrob Harry Styles, while David Byrne will handle the welcoming in of English rock band Radiohead and Queen’s Brian May will do the same for English heavy metal band Def Leppard at the ceremony at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
In addition, Janelle Monae is on tap to give the induction speech for Janet Jackson, Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor will do the honors for The Cure, Duran Duran’s John Taylor and Simon LeBon will deliver the speech for Roxy Music and the Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs will bring in the Zombies.
Nicks is being inducted again for her solo career, one of a small number of artists inducted more than once, and she is the first female artist elected to the hall twice.
The annual induction dinner and ceremony will be taped and highlights of the speeches and accompanying performances saluting each of the 2019 inductees will be compiled into an HBO special slated to premiere on the cable channel on April 27.
Those giving the speeches also typically join in the musical salutes to those inductees, often along with other artists chosen to fete them.
If the pairing of Fleetwood Mac singer Nicks with Styles seems an odd couple, it’s worth remembering that when Styles played a solo show in 2017 at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, Nicks joined him for a duet version of her song “Landslide.”
Along with the induction dinner and ceremony itself, the Cleveland hall of fame also will put up a new exhibit opening March 22 that spotlights each of the year’s honorees.