State Champ Radio Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
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With his first-ever Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination as a solo artist, Ozzy Osbourne is poised to become shrine’s the 27th multiple inductee.
Osbourne was inducted as a member of Black Sabbath back in 2006. If he’s voted in this year, he’ll join the likes of all four Beatles, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Stevie Nicks, Rod Stewart and others with double honors. Only Eric Clapton has three inductions on his own and as a member of the Yardbirds and Cream.
“I’m deeply honored to receive this news from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” Osbourne said in a statement on Saturday (Feb. 10), after the nominations were announced. “To be one of the few musicians who’s being considered for a second entry, now as a solo artist, is something I could never have imagined. After 44 years as a solo artist the fact that I can continue to record music and receive this recognition is something I am incredibly proud of.”
Osbourne began his solo career with Blizzard of Ozz in 1980 and has released 13 albums on his own, most recently Patient Number 9 during 2022. Those have launched a number of iconic hard rock hits, including “Crazy Train,” “Flying High Again,” “Bark at the Moon” and “No More Tears,” as well as the ballad “Mama, I’m Coming Home.”
Some recent surgeries and a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis have rendered Osbourne unable to perform in recent years; he had to drop off the bill of the Power Trip festival last October in Indio, Calif. His wife and manager Sharon Osbourne, however, recently spoke of plans for a pair of farewell concerts in Osbourne’s home town of Birmingham, England.
During a November appearance on The Adam Carolla Show, Sharon lobbied for Ozzy to be considered for Rock Hall induction on his own as well.
“They know that Ozzy deserves to be there,” she said. “They know he’s been a solo artist. You’ve gotta be doing it for 24 years. He’s been 43 years as a solo artist. He sold nearly a hundred million albums as a solo artist. So where is he? Induct him!”
Sharon added that she and Ozzy attended a dinner for the 2023 inductees “and people were saying to Ozzy, ‘Oh, you’ve been inducted in,’ and we were like, ‘No, actually. We were just invited for the food, so we’re here.’ That’s as near as we’ve got, but no.”
Public voting has begun for this year’s inductees via rockhall.com, while ballots are being mailed to industry voters. Inductees are expected to be announced during early May, with the ceremony slated for the fall in Cleveland.
02/10/2024
Here’s how we handicap this year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class and their chances of induction.
02/10/2024
Just over a week after Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt explained the band’s approach to addressing politics in their music, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan is sharing his thoughts on the phenomenon. In a new interview on the Reinvented With Jen Eckhart podcast that Billboard has a first look at, Corgan opened up about making political music, being continually passed over by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and more.
“I can’t think of any political song I’ve ever written. That said, I’m a political junkie. I pay a ton of attention to politics. I’m not one of these people who thinks that politics doesn’t have a place in music,” Corgan mused. “I think that every artist should express their views however they deem fit. Whether or not those views are acceptable to people, I think is irrelevant … I’ve just never been that intrigued on putting that type of political messaging into my music.”
The Smashing Pumpkins — alongside fellow support acts Rancid and The Linda Lindas — are set to embark on Green Day’s upcoming global stadium tour in support of new album Saviors. While the jury is still out as to where the record will land on the Billboard 200, the set’s lead single, the fiery “The American Dream Is Killing Me,” has already seen success across several Billboard charts. Since its release in October, the track has reached the top of Rock Airplay and No. 22 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs.
“‘The American Dream Is Killing Me’ was written by Billie [Joe Armstrong] almost four years ago. But we all knew it was just low-hanging fruit,” Dirnt previously said of the making of the hit single. “We’re not a parody of who we are, and songs like that need time to be fleshed out. If that means just sitting back and letting life happen, so be it. And it was one of the last things we recorded.”
Saviors marks Green Day’s 14th studio album, and the band’s third record since its induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame back in 2015. The band made it into the Rock Hall in its first year of eligibility, while Smashing Pumpkins have still yet to receive such an honor. In his conversation on the podcast, Corgan also criticized the current state of the Rock Hall.
“A general criticism is, ‘Why have a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame if the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame isn’t only relegated to rock n’ roll?’ Personally, I think Willie Nelson belongs in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Because there’s no real clear definition, it’s confusing to people,” he said. “Why don’t you just call it the Music Hall of Fame? I quantify rock n’ roll as more of a spirit thing … I think it’s hard for people to understand the definitive qualities, especially when you start putting in pop artists who are strictly pop artists. Now if the argument is that, over time, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has morphed into an institutional culture which is more the ‘Music Hall of Fame,’ then I think that would be easier for people to understand.”
The 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees included Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, George Michael, Willie Nelson, Rage Against the Machine and The Spinners.
“I think the 20-year-old in me would be shocked, but I think the value of The Smashing Pumpkins has grown into something far more valuable than hit records or institutional approval,” said Corgan. “Our place in musical history has grown into something far more unique than even I would have imagined.”
Over the course of its storied career, The Smashing Pumpkins has sent seven titles to the top 10 of the Billboard 200, including its sole chart-topper, 1995’s Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (one week). On the Billboard Hot 100, the band has landed eight career entries on the chart, including the band’s highest peaking single, 1996’s “1979” (No. 12). As a soloist, Corgan has a pair of Billboard 200 entries: 2005’s TheFutureEmbrace (No. 31) and 2017’s Ogilala (No. 183), which he released under his full name, William Patrick Corgan.
Watch an exclusive clip of his interview on the Reinvented With Jen Eckhart podcast above.
This year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony was a roller coaster ride of emotions, surprise appearances, heartwarming speeches and, of course, good music. Plus, both the class of 2023 inductees and the night’s performers were more diverse than ever, thanks to the Hall’s ongoing efforts to recognize a broader range of genres as well as the women and people of color who have permanently changed the landscape of music for the better (in spite of what exiled co-founder Jann Wenner may have said earlier this year, something that made for a sizzling diss in Bernie Taupin’s acceptance speech).
And whether it was from the audience or behind the scenes, Billboard was there at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, on Friday night (Nov. 3) to capture it all. The evening’s inductees included Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, George Michael, Willie Nelson, Rage Against the Machine, The Spinners, DJ Kool Herc, Link Wray, Chaka Khan, and Bernie Taupin, while the performers list spanned Adam Levine, Carrie Underwood, Chris Stapleton, Elton John, H.E.R., Ice-T, LL Cool J, Miguel, New Edition, Olivia Rodrigo, Queen Latifah, Sia, Stevie Nicks and St. Vincent — several of whom stopped backstage to answer one-on-one questions from Billboard, address the press room as a whole or simply take photos.
For the first time ever, the ceremony was live-streamed, meaning fans everywhere could tune in via Disney+ to watch in real time. But to find out what cameras didn’t catch, keep reading below to see what you missed backstage at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, including exclusive Billboard interviews with Sheryl Crow, Carrie Underwood and more:
Carrie Underwood
Image Credit: Mike Coppola/WireImage
It looks like Kate Bush will stick to running up hills instead of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame stages. The “Wuthering Heights” singer is set to be honored at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Friday night (Nov. 3), but a new statement confirms that she will not attend the Barclays Center-hosted celebration.
Bush opened the statement — which was posted to her official artist website — with heartfelt appreciation. “I am completely blown away by this huge honour – an award that sits in the big beating heart of the American music industry,” she wrote. “Thank you so much to everyone who voted for me. I never imagined I would be given this wonderful accolade.”
Alongside Bush, Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, George Michael, Willie Nelson, Rage Against the Machine and The Spinners will all be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year.
“The RRHOF [Rock & Roll Hall of Fame] has welcomed me into the most extraordinary rostrum of overwhelming talent,” she mused. “When I was growing up my hero was Elton John. I pored over his music, longed to be able to play piano like him and longed to write songs that could move people in the way his work moved me.”
Last year, Bush earned a surprise runaway hit in 1985’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God).” The song climbed all the way to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 — becoming the most successful song of her career on the Billboard charts in the process — after it was used in a pivotal scene in season 4 of the Emmy-winning Netflix sci-fi drama Stranger Things. She referenced the phenomenon, writing, “Last year was such a surprisingly successful time for my track [‘Running Up That Hill’] and I’m sure that a lot of you who’ve voted me [into] the RRHOF also drove that track up the charts. Thank you!”
She continued, “I’m afraid I won’t be able to attend the ceremony tonight, but for me the real honour is knowing that you felt I deserved it.”
Bush did not give any explanation for her absence. For all intents and purposes, Bush’s statement acts as a de facto acceptance speech. She made sure to thank her biggest inspirations and closest collaborators, as well as wax poetic about what music means to her.
“Music is at the core of who I am and, like all musicians, being on the journey of trying to create something musically interesting is rife with feelings of doubt and insecurity,” she wrote in closing. “I’m only five foot three, but today I feel a little taller.”
Click here to read Kate Bush’s full statement.
Olivia Rodrigo officially has the Sheryl Crow stamp of approval. During a Thursday (Nov. 2) appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the nine-time Grammy winner sang the “Bad Idea Right” singer’s praises as she discussed the upcoming Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
“She’s the real deal. She’s precious,” Crow gushed. “She’s a great songwriter. She seems kinda unaffected by all of it, you know? When I was 19 — her age — I was like, ‘How do you fill out this application for college?!’”
Rodrigo — who took some time to attend class at USC’s Thornton School of Music after wrapping the promotional run for her Sour album — is now 20 years old, making her several years younger than Crow’s highest charting Billboard Hot 100 hit, 1994’s “All I Wanna Do” (No. 2).
The “Strong Enough” singer revealed that she first met Rodrigo “last year during a whole bunch of Grammy stuff.” “We wound up on some stuff together, and she’s super cool,” she added. “She asked me to do this thing when she came to Nashville, and so I was like, ‘OK!’”
The “thing” in question was an intimate, stripped-down September performance at The Bluebird Café in Nashville. The pair duetted on Crow’s 1996 hit “If It Makes You Happy” (No. 10).
In the caption for a Sept. 29 Instagram post — which consisted of an adorable photo of the two stars posing with magazines while sitting under hair dryers — Rodrigo wrote, “Pinch me! Sang one of my favorite songs of all time with the greatest of all time @sherylcrow !!!! what an honor!!!!” Crow also reposted the image to her main feed with the caption, “Funnest day ever with the amazingly brilliant @oliviarodrigo! What a talent!! And the loveliest young woman!”
As for Friday’s Rock Hall induction, Crow — who dropped a new song called “Alarm Clock” on Friday (Nov. 3) — explained that she simply “texted [Rodrigo] and said, ‘Hey, would you do the Rock Hall with me?’ And she was like, ‘I’d love to! I’d be so honored!’”
The “Good 4 U” singer — who is also a finalist for top female artist at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards — will again join Crow onstage for a performance at the 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which kicks off at 8 p.m. ET.
“I was cool with my kids!” Crow quipped of getting Rodrigo to join her.
Watch the “Everyday Is a Winding Road” singer discuss her relationship with Olivia Rodrigo above, and her performance of “Alarm Clock” on The Tonight Show below.
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Olivia Rodrigo is returning to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame stage on Friday (Nov. 3), as it was announced this week that she’ll be performing for the second year in a row. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “@oliviarodrigo will perform with one of her […]
“I think I was born under a lucky star,” Belinda Carlisle muses.
“My life has been a series of amazing happenstance and coincidences,” she says. “The fact that I’m sitting here, still doing this since 1977 … I’m in tune with the universe, I guess.”
Carlisle is discussing her new EP, Kismet, whose title reflects, in many ways, the singer’s life as a whole, as well, more specifically, the path that led to the collection – her first of English-language pop songs in more than 25 years.
Released May 12 on BMG, the five-song set of Carlisle’s trademark anthemic pop was written by Diane Warren, who has penned nine Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s, among 32 top 10s. The pair previously teamed for the No. 2-peaking 1988 hit “I Get Weak,” from Carlisle’s second solo album apart from The Go-Go’s, 1987’s Heaven on Earth. (The LP also includes the Warren-written “World Without You,” a top 40 hit in 1988 in the UK.)
It truly was kismet that sparked Carlisle’s new music: her son, Duke, saw Warren at a coffee shop, and she (adamantly) told him that his mother needed to record some of Warren’s new songs.
“I can’t say ‘no’ to her,” Carlisle says. “I thought, ‘Do I really want to make that commitment?’ Then I heard ‘Big Big Love,’ oh my God …,” she adds of the song that became the set’s first single, with an accompanying official video. “The fact that she gave me these amazing songs is like a gift. I’m 64 – usually things like that don’t happen to singers my age. I mean, maybe Cher, when she had ‘Believe’ …”
The Los Angeles native, now living in Mexico City, first stormed Billboard’s charts in 1980 with The Go-Go’s’ “Our Lips Are Sealed.” The group – Carlisle, Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock, Kathy Valentine and Jane Wiedlin – sent the song to No. 20 on the Hot 100 in 1981, while follow-up “We Got the Beat” soared to No. 2. Parent album Beauty and the Beat crowned the Billboard 200 for six weeks in 1982 – and remains the only set by an all-female rock band to have led the list. Interspersed with breakups and reunions, The Go-Go’s’ chart archives include four more albums through 2001, and three more top 40 Hot 100 hits.
Carlisle went solo in 1986. Her debut album, Belinda, that year, as well as Heaven on Earth, hit No. 13 on the Billboard 200, while 1989’s Runaway Horses rode to No. 37. She has notched six top 40 Hot 100 hits, including four top 10s: Belinda’s “Mad About You” (No. 3) and Heaven on Earth’s “Heaven Is a Place on Earth” (No. 1 for one week), “I Get Weak” and “Circle in the Sand” (No. 7). (Runaway Horses lead single “Leave a Light On” reached No. 11, and the Adult Contemporary top 10, and features George Harrison on slide guitar.)
Earlier in 2023, Carlisle extended her Billboard chart history by entering Digital Song Sales with another Warren composition, “Gonna Be You.” The all-star song, from the comedy 80 for Brady, brought Carlisle together with Dolly Parton, Cyndi Lauper, Gloria Estefan and Debbie Harry.
Reinforcing the new EP’s title, Carlisle says that Warren wrote “Big Big Love” “a couple days before” her son ran into her, and Warren thought that Carlisle would be the ideal singer for it. Warren also wrote the set’s “If U Go” with Carlisle in mind, while the other songs were already in Warren’s stockpile. “She writes every single day,” Carlisle says. “She has thousands and thousands and thousands of songs. She has like a catalog inside her brain: ‘Oh, this’ll be good [for a particular artist] …’ ”
Warren’s intuition was confirmed by Carlisle’s reaction. “This was five out of five,” Carlisle felt upon hearing the songs that would become Kismet. “She didn’t show me anything else, and I loved them all.”
Carlisle’s favorite song on the EP? Its closing track, “Sanity.” “It’s the hardest song I’ve ever sung in my whole career,” she notes. “And I love it. This is really out there, but it kind of reminds me of a cross between Jay and the Americans and the monkeys from The Wizard of Oz at the end. You know, ‘oh-ee-oh …’,” she sings, laughing. “There’s a harmony that’s very Jay and the Americans – I’m really dating myself, ‘cause that’s the ‘60s. That song is a mishmash of different styles of an era gone by.”
Notably, the release’s “Big Big Love,” “If U Go” and “I Couldn’t Do That to Me” feature Caffey on backing vocals, making for a partial Go-Go’s team-up. (“If U Go” sports a “go, go” echo – although Carlisle says that Warren didn’t originally plan for two Go-Go’s to sing that line. More kismet.)
Rounding out the set is “Deeper Into You,” with that and “I Couldn’t Do That to Me” its gentlest songs. (Carlisle says that the latter was modeled, as it was being recorded, after Sinead O’Connor’s Prince-penned “Nothing Compares 2 U” – “one of the greatest songs ever written.”) Carlisle is best known for uptempo hits, although her discography includes such other ballads as Runaway Horses’ “Vision of You,” a UK chart hit in 1990 written by Rick Nowels and Ellen Shipley – who authored “Heaven Is a Place on Earth,” “Circle in the Sand” and many other of Carlisle’s solo songs. (Carlisle credits Steve Nicks for suggesting that she collaborate with Nowels after he and Nicks co-wrote her top 20 1986 Hot 100 hit “I Can’t Wait.”)
Apart from one-offs, including her hooky 2013 track “Sun,” Kismet – which Mathia-Mathithiahu Gavriel produced, with Peter Stengaard having co-produced “Big Big Love” and “I Couldn’t Do That to Me” – returns Carlisle to traditional pop as a soloist for the first time since 1997’s A Woman & A Man, which generated two more UK top 10s. In between, The Go-Go’s returned with God Bless The Go-Go’s in 2001 and, as a soloist, she released the French pop album Voila in 2007 and the chants collection Wilder Shores in 2017; the lattermost set hit No. 4 on both Billboard’s New Age Albums and World Albums charts. She also released her autobiography, Lips Unsealed, in 2010.
Carlisle looks back on her hits with pride, describing them as a mix of “big, lush choruses … lots of melody … lyrics that are poetic … background vocals … romance.
“I always said that if I was going to record pop in the same vein that I did in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, it would have to be on par with those songs,” she says. “I’m not going to record a song just to record it.”
Belinda Carlisle
Christie Goodwin
In perhaps yet another validation of the new EP’s title, the set’s release coincides with a host of recent ‘80s-influenced hit songs, including The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” and Harry Styles’ “As It Was,” while Kate Bush’s 1985 classic “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God),” sparked by its synch in Netflix’s Stranger Things, surged to No. 3 on the Hot 100 in 2022.
“When you hear an ‘80s song, you know it’s an ‘80s song,” Carlisle says. “There’s something sonically that tells you that. And there was so much diverse music coming out at that time – rockabilly, punk, new wave, electronic, new romantic … and it was all great.”
The Go-Go’s’ ‘80s albums launched the band into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2021. “I was over caring” about potential induction,” Carlisle says, “but when it actually happens, you care. It was great, the band getting the recognition like that. It feels really good.”
Carlisle also feels that the honor is benefiting her solo career; in addition to Kismet, she has U.S. tour dates set through August, followed by shows in Australia beginning in November.
Carlisle’s highest-charting solo contribution to the ‘80s canon, “Heaven Is a Place on Earth,” topped the Hot 100 in December 1987. “I was doing a charity event at the Universal Amphitheatre [in Los Angeles] with Chicago and other artists and I was on-stage,” she recalls. “I had just finished or was about to sing ‘Heaven’ and some of the people from the record company [MCA] and some of the guys from Chicago came out and said, ‘You’re No. 1!’ I was like, ‘Oh my God … that’s the first time that’s happened.’ ”
As detailed in Lips Unsealed, in between releasing A Woman & A Man and Kismet, Carlisle found sobriety, supported by her husband of 37 years, producer/actor Morgan Mason. She calls that span, which also included being dropped from a record label deal the day after her 40th birthday in 1998, “the most interesting time of my life … up to the present moment.
“Good things always come out of something like that,” says Carlisle, who is also a contributor to multiple charities, including Animal People Alliance. “For me, it was self-reflection. I always identified myself as a singer, or a Go-Go, but never really cared to dig any deeper. It forced me to dig deeper. I think I’m more centered, for sure. I have a very strong spiritual foundation that I live my life from. It’s a very happy life.”
Meanwhile, Carlisle is open to more than the five songs on Kismet. “When we were toward the end of recording, Diane goes, ‘Let’s make an album!’ And it was like, ‘Well, it’s a little bit too late now that they have a release date for it …’,” Carlisle says with a chuckle. “I kind of wish it was an album. But this is five great pop songs.”
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame revealed its inductees for the Rock Hall’s Class of 2023, with Kate Bush making the list under the performer category.
The “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)” singer shared her sweet reaction to the news on her website, writing in a statement, “I have to admit I’m completely shocked at the news of being inducted into the Hall of Fame! It’s something I just never thought would happen. Thank you so much to everyone who voted for me. It means a great deal that you would think of me. It’s such a huge honour.”
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She concluded by hilariously noting, “Now as part of the initiation ceremony I get to find out about the secret handshake… there is one, right?”
See her post here.
To be eligible for the Rock Hall, an artist’s first commercial release must have come out at least 25 years prior to the nomination year. Alongside Bush, performer category inductees this year include Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, George Michael, Willie Nelson, Rage Against the Machine and The Spinners.
The “musical influence award” sees DJ Kool Herc and Link Wray enter the Rock Hall, while the “musical excellence award” honors Chaka Khan, Al Kooper and Bernie Taupin.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Nov. 3. See our full breakdown of the Class of 2023 here.
On Wednesday morning (May 3), the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame revealed the inductees for the Rock Hall’s Class of 2023.
The performer category boasts a stacked lineup of inductees gaining entrance: Kate Bush, the art rock cult fave whose idiosyncratic and undersung impact was propelled into the mainstream by an inescapable Stranger Things sync in 2022; Sheryl Crow, the rootsy yet polished hitmaker who draws on rock, folk, country and pop; Missy Elliott, the forward-thinking hip-hop mastermind behind a string of mind-bending classic albums; George Michael, the blue-eyed soul pop king who died in 2016; Willie Nelson, an outlaw country exemplar turned beloved elder statesman; Rage Against the Machine, a politically motivated rap-rock firebrand force; and The Spinners, a long-running vocal group who achieved their greatest success as a smooth soul outfit in the ‘70s.
That’s not all. The “musical influence award” sees DJ Kool Herc – the Bronx-based DJ whose breakbeat-focused turntable techniques are widely cited as the clearest starting point of hip-hop music – enters the Rock Hall; presumably, it’s not a coincidence his induction aligns with the year the music industry is celebrating as the 50th anniversary of hip-hop as a genre. The same category sees the induction of Link Wray, the distortion guitar rock rebel credited with inventing the power chord.
The “musical excellence award” invites three additional acts: Frequent Rock Hall nominee and funk queen Chaka Khan finally sees induction this year, as does Al Kooper, an invaluable player and/or producer on key recordings from Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Blood, Sweat & Tears. In the same category, Bernie Taupin – Elton John’s longtime lyricist whose poetic and imaginative take on American folklore set a new standard for rock songwriting – is also inducted.
Finally, Don Cornelius – who hosted the R&B and Black culture bedrock Soul Train on TV from 1970-1993 – is inducted with the Ahmet Ertegun Award.
The Rock Hall’s Class of 2023 sees four of the seven performer inductees gaining entrance on their first nomination: Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, George Michael and Willie Nelson; of those four, Elliott was the only artist eligible for the first time in 2023.
To be eligible for the Rock Hall, an artist’s first commercial release must have come out at least 25 years prior to the nomination year. [Though Elliott’s first album was released in 1997, the nominating committee at the Rock Hall recently started meeting the same year the inductees are honored, as opposed to the year before. This means 2023 is a sort of “make-up year” for artists whose first release was in 1997 or 1998, which explains 2023 being Elliott’s first year of eligibility.]
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Nov. 3. Ticket information will be announced in the future.
