CLEVELAND, Ohio — More than half of the 16 nominees for the 35th Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class are on the ballot for the first time, including longtime fan favorites Motorhead, the Doobie Brothers, and two hopefuls with local ties, Pat Benatar and her Parma-native husband Neil Giraldo and Nine Inch Nails.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation announced the nominees in a broadcast Tuesday morning on Sirius XM Channel 106, and in a press statement released to the public at the same time. The Class of 2020 will be enshrined in ceremonies at Cleveland’s Public Hall on Saturday, May 2.
As revealed by incoming Foundation Chairman John Sykes, an iHeart Media executive who is taking over from Hall of Fame founder and Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner in January, the nominees also include the slain Brooklyn-born rapper the Notorious B.I.G., synth-rock new wavers Depeche Mode and English psychedelic folk rock pioneers T. Rex.
The rest of the nominees are the Dave Matthews Band, metal favorites Judas Priest, Kraftwerk, MC5, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, Soundgarden, Thin Lizzy, Todd Rundgren and Whitney Houston.
It’s a first ballot appearance for DMB, the Doobies, the late Lemmy Kilmister and Motorhead, Biggie, Benatar, Soundgarden, T. Rex, Thin Lizzy and Houston.
Perhaps the biggest surprise on the ballot is the late torch singer Houston, but her inclusion could be a nod toward the onstage pleas at last season’s ceremonies by Class of 2019 inductees Stevie Nicks and Janet Jackson to include more women.
Pioneering electronic band Kraftwerk, eligible since 1995 as part of the Class of 1996, is up for the hall for a sixth time. Hard rockers MC5, which formed in 1963, have received four previous nominations since becoming eligible in 1991, just six years after Wenner and Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun created the Hall of Fame.
A band or artist becomes eligible for the Rock Hall 25 years after releasing its first recording.
Public voting on the inductees begins today and lasts till 11:59 p.m. Friday, Jan. 10. Fans can vote through Google by searching “Rock Hall Fan Vote,” at rockhall.com or at the museum here in Cleveland. The top five vote-getters will comprise a single “fans ballot,” which will be tallied alongside more than 1,000 ballots of official voters. Those voters consist of music and industry professionals and all living Rock Hall inductees.
The results will be revealed in mid-January. Normally, five to seven performers are chosen from the ballot, along with one or two nonperformers who are inducted as Ahmet Ertegun Award winners. The late Brian Epstein and Andrew Loog Oldham, the respective managers of the Beatles and Rolling Stones, are examples of that.
Typically, five to seven inductees are chosen each year.
The Rock Hall will unveil ticket information in January 2020, but Rock Hall members and donors will again have access to early pre-sales. To be eligible, you must join the museum or make your donation by Jan. 31, 2020.
The induction ceremonies will culminate a weeklong series of events that will include the opening of a new exhibit honoring the Class of 2020, live performances, a VIP party, a red carpet experience and other events, according to the Rock Hall release announcing the inductees