The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2021
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has officially announced this year’s inductees: Foo Fighters, The Go-Go’s, Jay-Z, Carole King, Todd Rundgren, and Tina Turner will join the class of 2021 in the Performers category.
Additionally, LL Cool J, Billy Preston, and Randy Rhoads will receive the Musical Excellence Award. Kraftwerk, Gil Scott Heron and Charley Patton will get the Early Influence Award, and Sussex Records founder Clarence Avant will be given the Ahmet Ertegun Award.
Three of this year’s inductees — Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) , Tina Turner, and Carole King — are entering the Hall of Fame for the second time. King was inducted along with her former songwriting partner Gerry Goffin in 1990 as a non-performer, Tina Turner entered in 1991 as half of the Ike & Tina Turner duo, and Grohl was brought in as Nirvana’s drummer in 2014.
The induction ceremony will be held at Cleveland, Ohio’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on October 30th. It will be broadcast on HBO Max and Streamed on HBO Max at a later date.
Last year, the pandemic forced organizers to scramble and hold a virtual event on HBO in November. For the first time in Hall of Fame history, mini-documentaries honoring the inductees replaced live performances. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame chairman John Sykes thinks we’ll see a great live event, and maybe a hybrid show on HBO that will be a combination of live music and some of these documentary-style pieces that really told the story of the inductees.