Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2025 inductees include Soundgarden, Cyndi Lauper, OutKast
The votes have been cast and tabulated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2025, and that’s very good news for Cyndi Lauper, OutKast, The White Stripes, Chubby Checker, Bad Company, the late Joe Cocker and grunge-rock pioneers Soundgarden, whose drummer, Matt Cameron is a San Diego native. All of them will be inducted into the hall’s class of 2025 on Nov. 8 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
Seven other nominees failed to garner enough votes to earn induction this year — Black Crowes, Billy Idol, Mariah Carey, Joy Division/New Order, jam-band favorite Phish, the recently reunited Brit-pop group Oasis and Mexico’s Mana, the first Spanish-language rock band to be nominated in the hall’s 39-year history.
Never mind that, of the 2,553,233 votes cast by the public on the hall’s 2025 fan ballot, Phish received a field-leading 320,981 votes, with Idol close behind at 260,416 votes.
Despite those numbers, the fan ballot counts for just 1% of the total vote tally. The other 99% is determined by the hall’s more than 1,200 voting members. It is composed of previous inductees, historians, music industry veterans and critics, including this writer.
“Each of these inductees created their own sound and attitude that had a profound impact on culture and helped to change the course of (rock) forever,” said Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Chairman John Sykes, in a statement issued Sunday. “Their music gave a voice to generations and influenced countless artists that followed in their footsteps.”
The 2025 inductees were announced live on ABC-TV Sunday night by show host Ryan Seacrest during the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame episode of “American Idol.” The telecast featured the Top 14 “Idol” finalists performing songs by some of the hall’s previous inductees.
James Taylor, who was inducted into the hall in 2000, was the guest mentor on Sunday’s “Idol” episode. He will perform concerts May 10 and 11 at the Rady Shell in San Diego.
This year’s induction of Soundgarden will be doubly notable for the Seattle-bred band, which was previously nominated in 2020 and 2023 but ceased to exist after the 2017 death of lead singer Chris Cornell. Artists become eligible for induction into the hall 25 years after the release of their first recording under the name for which they are nominated.
Soundgarden’s drummer, Matt Cameron, will become the first drummer to be inducted as a member of two different bands. The Bonita Vista High School alum, who played in several San Diego groups as a teenager, was inducted into the hall in 2017 as a member of Pearl Jam, the Seattle band whose lineup features two other former San Diegans.
Cameron’s fellow drummer, Beatles’ alum Ringo Starr, is also a two-time inductee. But only one of his inductions, in 1988, was as a member of a band. Starr’s second induction, in 2015, was as a solo artist.
Several other artists will also be honored at the year’s induction ceremony. The Musical Influence Award, which is often given to artists who have been nominated but did not get enough votes for induction, will go to the hip-hop group Salt-N-Pepa and the late Warren Zevon. The Musical Excellence Award will go to rock piano great Nicky Hopkins and Philadelphia soul-music mainstay Thom Bell, both deceased, and to bass guitar great Carol Kaye, who — at 90 — is this year’s oldest living honoree.
The Ahmet Ertegun Award, which honors standout music industry executives, will go to former Warner Bros. Records President Lenny Waronker. By coincidence, his son — Joey Waronker — is the newly hired drummer for Oasis, which this year was nominated for induction into the hall but did not gain enough votes.
The 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will stream live on Disney+ on Nov. 8 and will be available on Hulu the next day. An edited version will air on ABC at a later date. Tickets for the ceremony will be available to the general public through rockhall.com. Prices have not yet been announced.