OutKast, the White Stripes, Soundgarden Enter Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame

The Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame has formally introduced this 12 months’s inductees: Dangerous Firm, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, OutKast, Soundgarden, and the White Stripes will be part of the category of 2025 within the performer class.

Salt-N-Pepa and Warren Zevon shall be introduced with the Musical Affect Award; Philly soul songwriter/producer Thom Bell, keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, and Wrecking Crew bassist Carol Kaye will obtain the Musical Excellence Awards; and former Warner Bros Information president Lenny Waronker is getting the Ahmet Ertegun Award.

“Every of those inductees created their very own sound and angle that had a profound impression on tradition and helped to alter the course of Rock & Roll perpetually,” mentioned John Sykes, Chairman of the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame. “Their music gave a voice to generations and influenced numerous artists that adopted of their footsteps.”

(There are some notable snubs this 12 months, together with Phish, Pleasure Division/New Order, Oasis, and Mariah Carey. Phish gained the annual fan vote, and their exclusion isn’t prone to play properly within the jam band world. That is additionally the second time that Pleasure Division/New Order have been handed over regardless of their vital function in shaping the sound of rock and synth-pop within the Eighties.)

The induction ceremony shall be held on Nov. 8 on the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. It would as soon as once more stream dwell on Disney+, and an edited model will air on ABC at a later date.

The annual induction ceremony is commonly a spot the place dormant acts reform years and even many years after they final performed collectively. A White Stripes reunion 16 years after Jack White and Meg White final shared a stage collectively could be a large occasion, however Meg White lives a particularly non-public life removed from the highlight, and it’s unlikely to occur.

The surviving members of Soundgarden have come collectively a handful of instances since Chris Cornell’s demise in 2017, most not too long ago in December 2024 after they billed themselves as Nudedragons at a Seattle profit present. Duff McKagan and Shaina Shepherd joined them that evening.

The night can be an opportunity for Salt-N-Pepa to carry out once more with former DJ Spinderella. She was let go by the group in 2019, sparking a lawsuit, a confrontation within the press, and Spinderella’s exclusion from their 2021 Lifetime biopic. However Sandra “Pep” Denton joined Spinderella final October at her annual Halloween Boo Bash to carry out Salt-N-Pepa classics like “Push It,” “Shoop,” and “Whatta Man.” Spinderella advised the group that the group has been privately mending their relationship.

The induction of OutKast presents one other alternative for a momentous hip-hop reunion. The duo of André 3000 and Huge Boi haven’t carried out collectively because the conclusion of their 2014 reunion tour. André 3000 spent final 12 months on the street selling his instrumental album, New Blue Solar, however he’s expressed little curiosity in reforming OutKast.

“I knew once I was, like, 25, that at a sure age I wouldn’t wish to be onstage doing these songs,” he advised Rolling Stone‘s Andre Gee in December 2024. “They required a sure vitality. Actually, I’m not a giant fan of trying again. I’m simply not. I’m grateful for every little thing that’s occurred, but it surely was a time. To me, that’s what it’s. That was a good time, and I want y’all had been there.”

For Chubby Checker, finest remembered for his 1960 hit “The Twist” and the 1961 follow-up “Let’s Twist Once more,” the induction is a very long time coming. He’s been eligible for induction since 1984. And in 2002, he despatched the Corridor of Fame an indignant letter about his exclusion from the establishment.

“Chubby Checker modified every little thing,” he wrote, referring to himself within the third individual. “He gave motion to a music that by no means had this motion earlier than…Chubby Checker’s given the music enterprise one thing nice. Now he needs his greatness returned. I need my flowers whereas I’m alive. I can’t odor them when l’m lifeless. The folks that come to see the present have given me every little thing. Nonetheless l is not going to have the music enterprise unaware of my place within the trade.”

Cyndi Lauper will obtain the distinction simply a few months after the ultimate present of her Ladies Simply Wanna Have Enjoyable Farewell Tour. “I’m so grateful to my followers for my profession,” she advised Billboard after studying she was nominated. “From the beginning, I’ve simply needed to make music meaning one thing to individuals, that lifts them up and makes them really feel seen. This honor, ought to I get in, is as a lot for them as it’s for me. Thanks, Rock Corridor.”