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Mike Peters, the lead singer of Welsh rock band The Alarm died on Tuesday (April 29) at age 66 following a decades-long battle with cancer. The death of the author of such strident 1980s alt rock anthems as “Blaze of Glory,” “Spirit of ’76,” “Sixty Eight Guns” and “The Stand” was confirmed in a statement from the group’s publicist titled “Totally Free.”
As the lone remaining original member of the punk-turned-rootsy rock group formed in Rhyl, Wales in 1977 (originally known as The Toilets) Peters continued to tour and release music during a three-decade battle with several forms of cancer, putting himself up as an indefatigable advocate for blood cancer patients.
Last April, before launching a 50-date U.S. tour, he was diagnosed with Richter’s Syndrome, an aggressive form of lymphoma. According to the release, even after extensive treatment at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester, U.K., including experimental therapies, doctors could not halt the cancer’s progress.
Michael Leslie Peters was born in Wales on Feb. 25, 1959 and logged time in early Hairy Hippie and The Toilets, forming the latter after being inspired by a Sex Pistols show he attended in 1976. Teaming up with childhood friend and bassist Eddie McDonald, as well as drummer Nigel Twist and guitarist Dave Sharp — initially as Seventeen — the group gelled as The Alarm in 1981, when they were signed to Miles Copeland’s IRS Records, the early indie rock home of groups including R.E.M., The Go-Go’s, Fine Young Cannibals, Wall of Voodoo and many more.
They got a crucial break when U2’s agent saw them live and invited the band to open for the then-ascending Irish group in December 1981. Their sound — a mix of acoustic roots rock, new wave balladry and howling, uplifting anthems — began to gain traction as they supported U2 on that band’s 1983 War tour.
The hard road work paid off on the Alarm’s 1984 debut album, Declaration, which spotlighted Peters’ sensitive, heartfelt lyrics on tracks including the opening salvo, “Marching On.” The anthem for youth found him wailing, “These are the kids they’re powerless/ So you tell them so/ These are the kids they’re powerful/ Don’t say you haven’t been told.”
Setting the tone for the next two decades, the album also featured such fist-in-the-air shout-along hymns to fortitude and fight as “Where Were You Hiding When the Storm Broke?,” “We Are the Light,” “Blaze of Glory” (not to be confused with the Bon Jovi song of the same name) and one of the Alarm’s most beloved calls to arms: “Sixty Eight Guns.”
The song mixed a jaunty rockabilly-meets-mariachi horns sound with another one of Peters’ rallying cries for misunderstood youth, in this case inspired by a late1960sGlasgow street gang who went by the song’s title. “They’re after you with their promises/ Promises of love/ They’re after you to sign your life away,” Peters sings in his signature urgent, raspy yowl. “Sixty-eight guns will never die/ Sixty-eight guns our battle cry/ Sixty-eight guns,” he adds on the chorus.
The group expanded their sound on 1985’s sophomore effort, Strength, which added some churchy organs to the title track and added a handful of other classics to their live repertoire, including the synth-speckled “Knife Edge” and yet another heart-pumping call to arms, the harmonica and piano painted homage to the band’s early origins, “Spirit of ’76.”
They would release three more albums during their initial run, including 1987’s Eye of the Hurricane — featuring their signature ballad, “Rain in the Summertime” — as well as 1989’s Tony Visconti-produced Change, which got them their first and only Billboard Hot 100 top 50 hit with “Sold Me Down the River” (No. 50). That album also represented one of the group’s chart peaks in America, topping out at No. 75 on the Billboard 200 album chart; Strength hit No. 39 in February 1986 and Declaration ran up to No. 50 in April of 1984.
Among their other Hot 100 charting singles were “Strength” (No. 61), “Rain in the Summertime” (No. 71) and “Presence of Love” (No. 77).
After the release of their fifth, and final, LP by the original lineup, 1991’s Raw, the band split up and got back together just one more time, for an episode of VH1’s Bands Reunited, in October 2003. Peters continued his musical march with the Poets of Justice band featuring his wife, Jules Peters, on keyboards, as well as releasing his first solo album, Breathe, in 1994, one year before his first cancer diagnosis.
Peters was diagnosed with non Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1995, battling that form of cancer, as well as later being twice diagnosed with lymphocytic leukemia in 2005 and 2015. Taking on the disease with the same vigor that fed his songs, Peters co-founded the music-driven charity Love Hope Strength with his wife Jules — who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016 — as a means to raise awareness around stem cell donation. The organization’s “Get on the List” campaign at his shows helped add more than 250,000 people to the global stem cell registry.
The singer also kept a sparkle in his eye amidst his health battles, releasing an album by his hoax teen group The Poppy Fields, in 2004, scoring a hit on British radio with the blitzing “45 R.P.M.” Though the song clearly featured Peters’ signature vocals, at the time he said the masked effort was an attempt to shake-up the media’s perception of the by-then 20-plus year old band by concealing their identities and enlisting a group of younger musicians in the band the Wayriders to pose as the veteran act.
In addition to solo singles and albums, Peters, who shared the stage with icons including Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan over the years, performed with the indie/new wave supergroup Dead Men Walking with members of The Mighty Wah!, The Damned and the Sex Pistols and briefly joined on as the lead singer of Scottish band Big Country in 2011 following the death of singer Stuart Adamson.
In addition to touring, Peters performed the “highest show ever” on Mt. Everest in 2007, where he was joined by some other 1980s new wave legends, including Cy Curnin and Jamie West of The Fixx, Glen Tillbrook of Squeeze and Slim Jim Phantom of the Stray Cats for a show to raise cancer awareness. A tireless advocate for cancer awareness, Peters shared his stories with his fans and encouraged them to join him on mountain-climbing treks to Mount Kilimanjaro and the Himalayas and released a documentary in 2018 on the BBC about Jules’ cancer battle, While We Still Have Time.
Peters posted from his hospital room in January, his signature shock of long blonde hair shaved down to a slim mohawk, as he shared a new song, “Chimera,” which he said celebrated his receipt of his CAR-T cell therapy on what he called his “new birthday.” Peters booked a series of shows in June of this year in Wales, dubbed “The Alarm Transformation Weekends,” in advance of the upcoming release of his final album, Transformation. He also completed the second volume of his memoirs, Volume 2 HOPE – 1991-2005.
Check out some of The Alarm’s most beloved hits below.
Dave Grohl popped into a benefit show at for L.A.’s Oakwood School at Avalon Hollywood over the weekend for a surprise set of covers of some of his favorite songs from LCD Soundsystem, The Knack and David Bowie. Accompanied by Foo Fighters bandmate keyboardist Rami Jaffee, as well as Studio 606 engineer and drummer John […]
Cyndi Lauper is bopping into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and she couldn’t be happier. “I’m humbled to be in the company of so many of my heroes – Aretha, Tina, Chaka, Joni, Wanda, to name just a few,” she shared in an Instagram post on Sunday (April 27), after the class of […]
Joe Cocker‘s older brother Victor had something of a front row seat for his sibling’s first steps toward the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame while they were growing up in Sheffield, England.
“We had a little skiffle group — this was when Joe was only around 12 or 13 and I was a teenager,” the elder Cocker, who still resides in England, tells Billboard. “He used to love and come and listen, and once or twice he sang. It just made him so excited, really, the idea of performing. He had a very natural talent. He always had a powerful voice, and a really soulful voice.”
That voice — and Cocker’s accomplishments over a 46-year recording career prior to his death in 2014 at the age of 70 — will be honored on Nov. 8 when he’s inducted into the Rock Hall some 32 years after he first became eligible.
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Best known for Billboard Hot 100 hits such as “Delta Lady,” covers of the Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends” and “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window,” “You Are So Beautiful” and the chart-topping “Up Where We Belong,” a Grammy Award-winning duet with Jennifer Warnes from An Officer and a Gentleman, Cocker will be one of seven performers voted into the shrine, joining Chubby Checker, Bad Company, Cyndi Lauper, Outkast, Soundgarden and the White Stripes. Cocker, a first-time nominee whose induction received public support from Paul McCartney and Billy Joel, also finished fifth on the fan ballot with more than 232,000 votes.
“I was really surprised,” says Cocker’s widow Pam. “I voted every day and watched his standing on the fan vote. ‘Long overdue’ — those were my daughter’s first words when we heard the news.”
Vic Cocker, meanwhile, is “quite thrilled” by the induction news. “It’s an important piece of recognition for Joe, I think. I think he would have been really delighted about it, so I’m really pleased. And of course he grew up in that age where the first generation of members of the Hall of Fame were his heroes; he was part of the second wave, so to be recognized there with his heroes and those of the second wave — like the Beatles, who he knew, and so on — would’ve delighted him.”
Pam Cocker adds that while her husband “wasn’t obsessed with the fact he wasn’t in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he did want it. But he didn’t prioritize it. He was always surprised at what other people were not in it more than himself.”
Because he was at university and then married, Vic Cocker watched his brother’s ascent from a distance. “When he found Ray Charles, of course, that was a big thing for him,” the elder Cocker remembers. “Then (keyboardist) Chris Stainton came along and they had (the 1968 single ‘Marjorine’) and then ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’ was the big change. I used to get so wound up when I’d go to see him; I just wanted him to succeed, really. It was such a thrill seeing him go and get better and better and more and more famous.”
He adds that the Cockers’ mother, Madge, was particularly engaged in his brother’s career, while their more stoic father was a bit more reserved about it. “He very much thought (Cocker) was crackers sometimes,” Vic recalls with a laugh. “He never went to a performance, whereas my mum used to go and see Joe sing.” Harold Cocker did help his younger son deal with Inland Revenue tax issues in the U.K., however, while Vic recalls finding a six-figure check for royalties from 1970’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen album that his brother never deposited.
“I think he’d decided he was going to split with A&M (Records) and he didn’t want to be obligated to them or something,” Vic Cocker says. “When I gave it to him many years later he goes, ‘God, what was I thinking?!’”
The family was also surprised by the spasmodic physical performing style that became a Cocker trademark — which many first witnessed in the 1970 Woodstock documentary. “That was something that developed…and became a little more extreme, yeah,” his brother says. “Nobody ever really commented on it. What he did was up to him, really.” He was nevertheless “upset” by Joe’s drug addictions, however, though he gives him credit for ultimately cleaning himself up.
“He did most of that himself,” Vic says. “He just had a quiet time at home. I remember he went to Scotland and did some fishing. I challenged him as to whether he was on heroin, because I’d heard rumors he was, and he told me he wasn’t and showed me his arms were clean. Afterward he admitted he was taking it another way…but he got himself off that on his own. He had a fantastic constitution, which in some ways was his savior but it was also his downfall in that he could abuse it.”
In addition to the Rock Hall induction, Cocker received an honorary doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University in 1995, and during 2017 he was named to the Order of the British Empire (OE). His last album, Fire It Up, came out during 2012.
All of the Cockers are planning to attend the induction ceremony in November and are anticipating, in Pam’s words, “a brilliant evening.” Vic expects that gratitude will be expressed to the musical peers who helped push Cocker to this point.
“I thought it was exceptional for them to put that amount of time into recognizing Joe and supporting him,” he says. “There were quite a lot of the sort of British rock n’ roll establishment who liked Joe. They’d seen him perform and were always impressed by him, I think. They recognized what he had.”
There’s an aspect to the late Warren Zevon finally being honored by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame that strikes his son, Jordan Zevon, as very much on brand.
“It’s a comedy of how it seems like the minute that I gave up on it, he got nominated (in 2023, for the first time ever),” the younger Zevon tells Billboard. After his father, who died in 2003, didn’t get in, “I’d gone back to giving up on it, and now he’s in. I think that’s kind of perfect.”
Long considered one of the Rock Hall‘s most egregious exclusions by fans and peers alike, Zevon — who passed away at the age of 56 from mesothelioma — will receive one of two musical influence awards at this year’s induction ceremony on Nov. 8 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. (Hip-hop trio Salt-N-Pepa is the other.) The honor is selected by the Rock Hall and not by voters, and it comes 30 years after Zevon was first eligible for Rock Hall consideration.
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During his career, which included 13 studio albums, the Chicago-born Zevon was celebrated as a songwriter as well as a performer. Linda Ronstadt in particular had hits with his “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me” and “Hasten Down the Wind.” Zevon’s greatest success was 1978’s Excitable Boy, his lone platinum release and the home of “Werewolves of London,” which peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978. He also collaborated with three-quarters of R.E.M. on 1990’s Hindu Love Gods, while his final album, 2003’s The Wind, was recorded after his cancer diagnosis and released just two weeks before his death; featuring guest appearances from Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Tom Petty, Emmylou Harris, Joe Walsh, Don Henley, Ry Cooder, Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam and more, it won a pair of Grammy Awards.
Zevon’s acerbic and highly literary songcraft set Zevon apart from others in the Southern California rock scene of the ‘70s, and he periodically collaborated with writers, serving as the musical director of the Rock Bottom Remainders, an ad hoc band that included Stephen King, Amy Tan, Matt Groening and more. Billy Joel, meanwhile, supported Zevon’s 2023 nomination by writing a letter to the Rock Hall recommending his induction. Zevon also filled in for Paul Shaffer on David Letterman’s late-night TV shows, and Letterman turned over his entire hour for Zevon’s final interview on Oct. 30, 2002.
“In the same way you’ll hear Philip Seymour Hoffman called an actor’s actor, to musicians (Zevon) is a musician’s musician,” notes his son, who’s a singer and songwriter himself. “He was in his own separate box. It’s that Stravinsky influence and classical background he had…that made him think a little different than everyone else. I’ve had instances where I’ve had to cover his songs and you go, ‘Wait, he went to THAT chord? That’s the wrong chord,’ but it works.
“When you listen to an artist who does that it makes you think, ‘I should think a little different, too, not use the same four chords and change the melody, as it’s been done throughout history.’ It makes you think more musically, about going deeper and darker, maybe.”
The younger Zevon is confident that his father would “be very happy in the company of the musical influences,” and being recognized by the Rock Hall in any capacity. “He didn’t scoff at credit or adulation,” Zevon notes. “Just because he was outside of the mainstream he didn’t necessarily hate everybody in the world and in the music industry. He would’ve appreciated it. He liked people coming up to him and telling him they were fans of his music. He liked when other musicians acknowledged him. I think he would’ve definitely felt some pride in that.”
Zevon says that, given his history, his father being honored at a Los Angeles induction ceremony is also appropriate. “He was definitely one of those guys,” Zevon says, referring to the well-populated community that included Ronstadt, Jackson Browne and a great many others. Who will participate in Zevon’s honor is still to be determined, but Jordan Zevon is planning to touch base to at least celebrate the news with Browne, Joel, Henley, longtime Zevon collaborators Waddy Wachtel and Jorge Calderon, and Minnesota Governor and 2024 Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz, an outspoken fan.
Zevon was recently celebrated with a pair of Record Store Day releases — a reissue of the Hindu Love Gods album and the box set Piano Fighter — The Giant Years, featuring the three albums he released for that label 1991-95. Jordan Zevon says both will eventually receive wider release, while there’s more coming, as well.
“We’re working around a project around (1982’s) The Envoy and getting that out. There’s some live stuff that’s been bootlegged here and there, so we’re trying to get official releases to put out. We just want to get everything on real high-quality vinyl and make sure the collection is complete and treated with care.”
Noel and Liam Gallagher are just 67 days from kicking off their first tour in more than 16 years. And while the formerly battling brothers have kept a tight lid on what fans can expect from Oasis 2.0, according to reports from the U.K., they recently took the stage together for the first time in nearly two decades and, as you might expect, the neighbors complained about the noise.
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According to The Guardian, the Gallaghers were pictured arriving at the Mildmay club in North London on Thursday, where they were reportedly filming a promo video for their sold-out summer reunion tour. They reportedly spent an hour at the club and made such a racket that the neighbors lodged a noise complaint. At press time a spokesperson for the group had not returned Billboard‘s request for additional information on the shoot.
Though a London tabloid reported that the pair performed and/or rehearsed during their visit to the club, singer Liam Gallagher threw cold water on that when the Oasis Podcast Twitter feed wrote, “The S*n reporting Noel and Liam actually performed on Thursday and there were noise complaints from local residents … knowing them could be rubbish but very interesting to see what comes out of it even if it is just an Adidas advert!”
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In response, Liam wrote “there was no performance.” As usual, though, Liam also had some cheeky answers to fan questions in the wake of the reports, writing on Saturday, “It’s all good can’t wait to get rehearsing.” When another fan wrote, “Noel says you’re on tip top form. How would u say Noel is??,” Liam responded of his guitarist/songwriter and occasional singer older brother, “He’s the same we’re locked in.”
Oasis have booked 41 dates for their long-awaited reunion tour, which is slated to kick off on July 4 with the first of two dates at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, U.K. Following a run of shows in their hometown of Manchester, as well as London, Edinburgh and Dublin they will move on to North America with August shows in Toronto and Chicago and September gigs in East Rutherford, N.J., Los Angeles and Mexico City.
The rest of the year will have the group — whose other touring members have not yet been revealed — returning to London before wrapping things up in Japan, Australia, Argentina and Chile before winding down with two shows at Estadio MorumBIS in São Paulo, Brazil on Nov. 22 and 23.
As they gear up to get back on the road, Oasis is also prepping a return to the charts in England, with their single “Some Might Say” expected to be back on the singles tally 30 years after its initial April 1995 release. According to NME, the song that earned the band their first U.K. No. 1 from their second album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? looks to climb to No. 2 on the U.K. Official Singles Chart after the release last week of a 30th anniversary vinyl re-release of the single.
Paul Rodgers, Simon Kirke and Mick Ralphs are looking forward to being in good company in November when their band Bad Company is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
“It is pretty amazing and very cool to be part of an iconic American institution that celebrates music, musicians and sometimes unsung heroes behind the scenes,” frontman Rodgers tells Billboard. “I know that our fans, friends and some media have wanted this for a long time, so they will be pleased at last. I am looking forward to seeing some old friends, reconnecting with (fellow inductee) Chubby Checker — maybe do the twist?”
Kirke, Bad Company’s drummer, adds that he too is “very happy. It’s been a long time coming… I’m not taking anything away from the (Rock Hall) committee; they had their reasons, but it’s a welcome addition if you will.”
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Via email from England, Ralphs — who suffered a debilitating stroke in 2016 — notes that, “I am elated and think that Bad Company’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is fantastic!” Both Rodgers and Kirke say they’re happiest that the guitarist was able to know the band would finally be inducted, though he’ll be unable to attend the Nov. 8 ceremony in Los Angeles.
“To be honest, every year we were not nominated it was another blow, not necessarily for me but we wanted Mick to be able to see this,” Kirke says. “So that’s been rectified, and we’ll give him a shout from the podium in November.”
Bad Company has been eligible for induction since 1999 and received its first nomination this year. It also finished second on the fan ballot with more than 279,000 votes.
It formed as a rock ‘n’ roll supergroup during 1973 in England. Rodgers and Kirke hailed from Free, Ralphs had left Mott the Hoople, and bassist Boz Burrell, who passed away in 2006 at the age of 60, was fresh out of King Crimson. The group was managed by the legendary Peter Grant and signed to Led Zeppelin’s Swan Song label. Its self-titled 1974 debut hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and No. 3 in the U.K., selling five-times platinum and launching enduring rock radio hits such as “Can’t Get Enough,” Movin’ On” and the song “Bad Company.”
Four of the band’s other 11 studio albums went platinum or better, as did the 1985 compilation 10 from 6. All told Bad Company sold more than 40 million records worldwide, with a cadre of other hits including “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” “Young Blood” and “Shooting Star.”
“Bad company struck deep chords” with audiences around the world, Rodgers says. “At the time we didn’t really fully understand it, and even now it is difficult to quantify or analyze. Suffice to say we resonated with music fans, or you could say we were in the right places at the right times. Sometimes the best plans are no plans, just rely on feel.
“When we put the band together it was because it felt right and as songwriters there was a natural flow, an unspoken understanding and connection between us that still exists to this day. My mission was to go in whole-hearted and deliver our music from the heart and soul to the heart and soul and let… the fans decided if they liked it or not.”
Kirke maintains that Bad Company’s muscular, spartan brand of hard rock was the sound of four musicians liberated from circumstances that had become stifling and were subsequently free to find new and more pleasing path.
“There was this air of ‘we’re free of the bonds of our three bands and free to do whatever we wanted,’” he explains. “We were all seasoned. (The success) didn’t take us completely by surprise… although maybe not to the extent we had right from the start. I think from the get-go Paul’s voice coupled with Mick’s songs — ‘Can’t Get Enough,’ ‘Movin’ On,’ “Ready For Love’ — made them come alive. And hooking up with Peter Grant and Led Zeppelin was the icing on the cake. (Grant’s) credo was, ‘I never tell anyone what to do in our bands except the lead singer. I said to (Robert Plant) and I’m saying the same thing to you, Paul — just wear something right and jump up and down a bit.”
Bad Company’s lineup splintered in 1982 and regrouped in 1998 to tour and record sporadically through 2019. Kirke and Ralphs, meanwhile, continued the band between 1986-1998 with the late Brian Howe and Robert Hart as frontmen. The group notched two more gold and another platinum album and scored more hits with “Holy Water,” “If You Needed Somebody,” “No Smoke” Without Fire,” “How About That” and “Shake It Up.”
Only the original lineup is being inducted, however, which Kirke — the only constant of Bad Company — feels is proper.
“(Howe and Hart) extended the band’s life and popularity,” the drummer acknowledges, “but I think the die-hard Bad Company fans will recognize the original lineup as being the quintessential Bad Company. The six albums we put together with the original lineup are the ones most people remember and hold dear to their hearts. The others kind of belong to another generation.”
As to what Burrell would make of the induction, Rodgers guesses “possibly cooly chuffed,” while Kirke notes with a laugh that, “He would’ve been his usual, bitter self — I mean that in a fond way. Boz was that sort of little bit of a curmudgeon. I loved him to death, but I think he would probably get slightly tipsy and God knows what he would’ve said on the podium — leave it at that.”
Rodgers and Kirke, who recently had dinner together with their wives in Palm Springs, both say they intend to perform at the induction ceremony, though details “will come a little closer to the time” according to Rodgers. Both also voiced a desire to see Free be inducted in the future.
Both remain busy making new music; Rodgers released a solo album, Midnight Rose, in 2023, while Kirke has written a stage musical about addiction that’s currently being shopped and is also planning his fourth solo album during the spring. Both are also involved in a Can’t Get Enough: A Tribute to Bad Company being put together by Primary Wave Music, which co-owns the group’s catalog, for release later this year. The Struts’ rendition of “Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy” was released for Record Store Day, and Rodgers and Kirke will play on the album — which will also include a rendition of Free’s “All Right Now.”
“It has been very interesting listening to other musicians interpret your songs. I found myself smiling a lot,” says Rodgers, who’s also about eight months into writing of a memoir for publication next year. “The timing just seemed right at this point to open up and share my story. How interesting looking back at old photographs and the memories they evoke, reminding me that I am just a lad from Middlesbrough who got lucky — very lucky.”
Neil Young returned to the stage on Saturday night (April 26) for a special cause, delivering a rare live performance at the Autism Speaks Light Up The Blues 7 concert at Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news In a set packed with surprises, […]
Chubby Checker, whose “The Twist” was a global smash in 1960, has been eligible for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame since the first class was inducted in 1986, but he was never even nominated until this year. Despite having been ignored for decades, he made it in his first time on the ballot.
So did first-time nominees Bad Company, Joe Cocker and Outkast, as well as Cyndi Lauper and The White Stripes, who had each been nominated once before, and Soundgarden, which had been nominated twice before. These seven acts were all inducted in the performer category.
The inductees were announced by Ryan Seacrest on ABC’s American Idol on Sunday night (April 27).
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There are six other inductees this year in other categories. Salt-N-Pepa and Warren Zevon are set to receive the musical influence award; Philly Soul producer Thom Bell, English studio pianist/organist Nicky Hopkins and studio bass guitarist Carole Kaye (who was part of the fabled Wrecking Crew of top L.A. studio musicians) will receive the musical excellence award; and producer and label executive Lenny Waronker will receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award.
Sadly, several of these people didn’t live to see their inductions. Hopkins died in 1994 at age 50; Zevon in 2003 at 56; Chris Cornell of Soundgarden in 2017 at 52; and Bell in 2022 at 79.
Checker had to wait even longer for induction than Cher, who was finally inducted last year, 59 years after Sonny & Cher’s breakthrough smash “I Got You Babe.”
With Outkast and Salt-N-Pepa both being inducted this year, this is the sixth consecutive year that one or more rap acts has been in the induction class.
With Lauper, Salt-N-Pepa, Meg White of The White Stripes and Carol Kaye being inducted this year, this is the fourth consecutive year that four or more female acts were in the induction class.
Bell won the first Grammy Award ever presented for producer of the year, non-classical, in 1975. By coincidence, Waronker was among the other nominees in the category that year. Waronker was also nominated for record of the year that year for producing Maria Muldaur’s classy and sexy “Midnight at the Oasis.” Waronker’s many other hits as a producer include Gordon Lightfoot’s Hot 100-topping “Sundown,” Rickie Lee Jones’ “Chuck E.’s in Love” and Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.,” which Dawes performed as the opening song on this year’s Grammy telecast.
Carol Kaye, 90, is this year’s oldest inductee. Checker and Waronker are both 83, but will both be 84 by the time of the Nov. 8 induction ceremony.
All of the artists who were induced in the performer category have landed top five albums on the Billboard 200. Three of them reached No. 1: Bad Company (Bad Company, 1974), Outkast (Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, 2003) and Soundgarden (Superunknown, 1994). Three more reached No. 2: Chubby Checker (Your Twist Party, 1962), Joe Cocker (Mad Dogs and Englishmen, 1970) and The White Stripes (Icky Thump, 2007). Lauper climbed as high as No. 4 twice, with She’s So Unusual in 1984 and True Colors in 1986.
Both of the artists who are receiving musical influence awards made the top 10. Salt-N-Pepa reached No. 4 with Very Necessary in 1994. Zevon hit No. 8 with Excitable Boy in 1978.
Lauper won the Grammy for best new artist in 1985. She’s the sixth artist who was a past winner of that award to go on to a Rock Hall induction.
Outkast won the Grammy for album of the year in 2004 for Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. André 3000 was nominated again in that category at this year’s ceremony for New Blue Sun.
Two of the inducted acts are duos – Outkast (André 3000 and Big Boi) and The White Stripes (Jack White and Meg White).
The other seven nominees in the performer category were denied admission to the Rock Hall – this year, anyway. Oasis and Mariah Carey were both passed over for the second year in a row. Both were surprising snubs – Oasis is reuniting for a global tour in 2025; Carey’s profile, never low, has been boosted in recent years by her status as the uncontested Queen of Christmas. Of the other passed-over artists, Joy Division/New Order were previously on the ballot in 2023; this was the first time on the ballot for The Black Crowes, Billy Idol, Maná and Phish.
The voters showed no love for brother acts this year. Oasis includes Liam and Noel Gallagher; The Black Crowes includes Chris and Rich Robinson.
Maná was vying to become the first rock en español act to make the Rock Hall. Joy Division/New Order was vying to join the short list of two related acts being inducted in tandem, following Parliament/Funkadelic in 1997 and The Small Faces/Faces in 2012.
Phish, which won this year’s fan vote, has never landed a Hot 100 hit, but the band is a powerhouse live attraction, as evidenced when it played the Sphere in Las Vegas in April 2024.
Idol was a mainstay of early MTV – as was Lauper, who did get in. In an interview with Vulture, Idol said of his guitarist Steve Stevens, “Because of our special relationship, if I get in, they will induct him as well.” This would have echoed Pat Benatar’s induction three years ago, where the Rock Hall inducted both Benatar and her husband and musical partner, Neil Giraldo. But it’s academic, as Idol didn’t make it this year.
The 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction will be live on Saturday, Nov. 8 at the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. The 2025 ceremony will once again stream live on Disney+, with a special airing on ABC at a later date and available on Hulu the next day. The 2024 ceremony aired on New Year’s Day.
Here’s the full list of 2025 inductees:
Performer Category
Bad Company
Chubby Checker
Joe Cocker
Cyndi Lauper
Outkast
Soundgarden
The White Stripes
Musical Influence Award
Salt-N-Pepa
Warren Zevon
Musical Excellence Award
Thom Bell
Nicky Hopkins
Carol Kaye
Ahmet Ertegun Award
Lenny Waronker
Shane Boose says that, if a piece of music can be described as “alternative” or “indie,” he’s probably going to enjoy it. “My favorite band of all time is Radiohead,” Boose, who records as Sombr, tells Billboard. “And I’m a big fan of Jeff Buckley, Phoebe Bridgers, The 1975. I listen to a ton of alternative music — it’s my genre.”
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Those influences help explain why Sombr’s two fast-rising hit singles, “Back to Friends” and “Undressed,” have not only exploded on streaming services as crossover pop hits, but have also minted the 19-year-old singer-songwriter at rock and alternative platforms that have been starving for fresh new talent. On this week’s Hot 100, “Back to Friends” leaps up 14 spots to a new peak of No. 56, while “Undressed” jumps 12 spots to No. 84; meanwhile, “Back to Friends” hits the top 10 of the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart for the first time, bumping up to No. 9 with “Undressed” close behind at No. 13.
Sombr has been on the road over the past few weeks opening for Daniel Seavey in the U.S. — watching each day as his streaming totals grow (through Apr. 17, “Back to Friends” had earned 40.7 million official on-demand streams, while “Undressed” had earned 19.5 million streams, according to Luminate) and his crowd sizes swell.
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“They 100 percent break my brain,” he says of the streaming totals. As for the crowds, “You don’t usually get to see it happening in real time, increasing every show, but being able to see that has just put it into perspective. When I’ve had moments in previous years, they’ve never been like this. And I’ve never gotten to visualize it while it was happening in real time.”
Boose grew up on the Lower East Side and attended the prestigious LaGuardia High School, where he studied vocals while tinkering with GarageBand and Logic in his bedroom. “I made the first few songs in a more shoegaze vein, and most of those songs aren’t even out,” he says. “And then I made the song ‘Caroline’ after listening to Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago album, and I’d like to think that’s the first good song I ever made.”
Released in mid-2022, “Caroline” is indeed a sparse, wrenched folk song that Boose posted to TikTok before going to bed one night, and woke up the next morning to find thousands of reactions. He dropped out of high school, signed a deal with Warner Records in early 2023, then spent roughly two years trying to get lightning to strike for a second time with a string of singles, to little avail.
Sombr, who still writes and produces all of his songs, says that he never got impatient while awaiting his breakthrough following his major label signing. “I was just making music,” he says, “and I’m a really hard worker. I like to think that, if you really put in the hours and manifest what you want, it will happen.” On the day that he made “Back to Friends” in his bedroom, he played the finished chorus back, and felt that, with this song, it was finally going to happen for him.
Released last December, “Back to Friends” is a swirl of shakers, dramatic piano chords, fuzzed-out vocals full of post-hookup anxieties and harmonies that lob out rhetorical questions on the chorus. Along with March’s “Undressed,” a ghostly warble-along with an equally outsized chorus, Sombr has reinvented his sound over the course of two songs, moving on from the hushed singles released post-“Caroline” and toward slick, slightly swaggering alt-pop.
“I think they gave me a platform to make more upbeat music,” he says of the two tracks. “Before ‘Back to Friends,’ all my music was very ballad-y — there was nothing with a beat. I was so tired of that. I feel like this is a lot more free, as far as the music I want to create. And I wanted my show to be more exciting. I didn’t want to just do ballads forever.”
After wrapping up his tour with Seavey last week, Sombr will next hit the road with Nessa Barrett, joining for a month-long European run that kicks off on May 26 in Dublin. Earlier this week, however, Sombr announced a fall headlining tour across North America that will start on Sept. 30 — and thanks to the surging momentum from “Back to Friends” and “Undressed,” pre-sale tickets apparently sold out within seconds. (“The response has been insane,” Sombr posted on Instagram. “I hear you all. I am working on upgrades and new dates. Stay posted.”)
And while Sombr says that a proper debut album is “definitely on the horizon,” he’s trying to savor this singular moment. “The last show in New York, it was the loudest it’s ever been, and I got it in the pit,” he says before letting out a quick laugh. “It’s getting wild, and I love it. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”