Byline: George Varga, The San Diego Union-Tribune, (TNS)
After failing to even be nominated in previous years, Cher, Peter Frampton, Foreigner, Ozzy Osbourne, and Kool & The Gang will all be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2024, alongside repeat nominees Mary J. Blige, Dave Matthews Band, and hip-hop innovators A Tribe Called Quest.
In a novel move, Frampton encouraged concertgoers to vote for him during his April 14 show at The Shell in San Diego by having the QR code for the ballot projected onto the large video screen behind him on stage.
Five other artists who were also on the ballot for the first time this year did not earn enough votes to be inducted, specifically, Oasis, Lenny Kravitz, Sadé, Mariah Carey, and Sinéad O’Connor, who died in July 2023. Also failing to make the cut for induction were two repeat nominees — Jane’s Addiction and the hip-hop duo Erik B. & Rakim.
This year’s inductees were announced during the telecast of American Idol on April 21 by Lionel Richie, a 2022 hall inductee, and show host Ryan Seacrest. The list of 2024 honorees also includes six artists who will receive the hall’s Musical Excellence and Musical Influence awards, two categories that are chosen by the hall’s in-house committees.
The 2024 Musical Excellence Award honorees include Dionne Warwick, Norman Whitfield, Jimmy Buffett (who died in September 2023 from cancer) and the pioneering Detroit proto-punk-rock band MC5, whose leader, Wayne Kramer, died of cancer February 2, 2024. The final iteration of the group, which included San Diego guitarist Stevie Salas playing alongside fellow guitarist Kramer, toured in 2022.
MC5 had been nominated for induction in six previous years but did not earn enough votes to gain induction. Buffett, whose final concert of his career with his Coral Reefer Band took place in May 2023 at San Diego’s Snapdragon Stadium, was never nominated.
This year’s Musical Influence Award honorees include England’s John Mayall and the late Alexis Korner, who in the 1960s jointly spearheaded the blues boom in the UK that fueled the launching of such bands as the Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, Fleetwood Mac, and Cream. At 90, Mayall appears to be the oldest of this year’s hall honorees.
The third 2024 Musical Influence Award honoree is the late Big Mama Thornton, whose galvanizing recordings of the songs “Hound Dog” and “Ball and Chain” greatly influenced the subsequent versions of those songs by, respectively, Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin.
Artists become eligible for nomination 25 years after the release of their first recording and are honored for their “originality, impact and influence.” Ballots are cast by the hall’s more than 1,000 voting members, which include previous inductees and an array of music industry professionals, including this writer.
In 2013, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame introduced it “fan vote,” in which the top five nominees that fans vote online for are submitted as one official ballot that is counted with the rest of the Voting Committee’s. The quantitative impact of the fans’ choices is minimal — accounting for about 0.3% of the total — but creates a fair amount of buzz.
This year’s two top fan-vote earners are Dave Matthews Band (with 586,745 votes) and Frampton, with 529,077. This year’s online fan voting was supposed to continue until April 26, but instead concluded April 15.
The hall’s final 2024 honoree, powerhouse music, film and TV industry executive Suzanne de Passe, will receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award. It is named after the co-founder of Atlantic Records.
The announcement of this year’s inductees comes as several of them are battling serious medical conditions.
Frampton, 73, has an autoimmune disease called inclusion body myositis that affects his muscle control and sense of balance. He was diagnosed with the disease in 2019, after falling several times on stage. He now walks with a cane, performs while seated and has lost some control of his fingers.
Osbourne, 75, rose to fame as the lead singer in the heavy-metal band Black Sabbath before launching his solo career in 1980. He suffered a serious fall in 2019, has since undergone four spinal surgeries and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2003.
Mick Jones, the 79-year-old founder of the band Foreigner, disclosed his own Parkinson’s diagnosis in February. He cites his condition as the reason he no longer tours with his group. Foreigner’s farewell tour includes a June 28 show at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
Fellow 2024 Rock Hall inductees Kool & The Gang will perform June 24 in San Diego at The Shell. Bassist and band founder Robert “Kool” Bell is the only surviving member still on tour with the group.
The 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will take place October 19 at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland and will stream live on Disney+ and be available on Hulu the following day. An edited airing of the ceremony will be broadcast on ABC at a later date.
Cher may command the spotlight at the induction ceremony — should she choose to attend.
In December — two months before the 2024 nominees were announced — the 77-year-old singer blasted the hall for never having made her a nominee despite her having been eligible to be on the ballot since 1990.
“You know what? I wouldn’t be in it [the hall] now if they gave me a million dollars,” Cher said during a telecast of The Kelly Clarkson Show.
“I’m not kidding you,” Cher continued. “I was about to say something else. … I was about to say I’m not s—ing you. I’m never going to change my mind. They can just go you-know-what themselves.”
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