The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is opening its doors to new members.
Phil Collins, Iron Maiden, Oasis, Sade, Luther Vandross, Billy Idol and the Wu-Tang Clan, among others, are being inducted into the organization Saturday night in a ceremony at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles. A televised version of the event will air Dec. 8 on ABC and stream the next day on Hulu and Disney+.
But why wait till then to find out what goes down? The Times’ Vanessa Franko and Mikael Wood are inside the Peacock and will bring you updates throughout the night.
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MC Lyte gets her flowers and shares some wisdom
Mikael Wood: Here to induct MC Lyte is Remy Ma, who’s schooling the young people in the house — I’m not sure yet if there are any young people in the house — on what it was like to try to build a career in hip-hop in the days before streaming and social media. “As a rapper, if you didn’t win them over in two bars, you were out,” she says.
Vanessa Franko: I’m really glad MC Lyte is getting her flowers. She really was a groundbreaker for women in hip-hop and in the genre overall. I didn’t know she played Carnegie Hall!
M.W.: Something else I learned about her this afternoon on the red carpet: She’s held down a successful second career as a voiceover artist.
M.W.: “At that time it was actually cool to be smart,” Busta Rhymes says of Lyte’s heyday in the video package about her career. Missy Elliott says that Lyte “kicked down the door” for artists like her.
M.W.: In her acceptance speech, Lyte describes herself as “a B-girl from Brooklyn just looking for my chance to inspire and motivate a generation of people.” She also thanks Jojo, her niece and road manager, for coming in clutch every time with Lyte’s latte. (Relatable.)
V.F.: Queen Latifah gets a shoutout from the stage and she is WEARING a crown. Amazing.
M.W.: Lyte’s parting shot of wisdom for the crowd: “Build multiple streams of income, because one is not enough.”
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One of the biggest rock bands opens the show: U2
Vanessa Franko: A U2 surprise! I didn’t expect that for the opening tonight. They did just release a brand new album, though.
Mikael Wood: A good get, for sure. They’re doing “Silencio” from the new album while surrounded by guys dressed as riot cops.
V.F.: A choreography sequence with riot cops already feels like we’re in for a fever dream of a night, Mikael. But now we’re in more familiar territory, with the band playing hit “Pride (In the Name of Love).” No riot cops for this one.
M.W.: U2 has been putting in serious work to promote this new record, but I”m not mad at this promo at all. Bono sounds robust, and it’s great to see Larry Mullen Jr. behind the drums again.
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The 41st Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductions are officially underway
Mikael Wood: OK, we are off with a VERY high-wattage appearance by … the Rock Hall’s CEO, John Skyes. He’s doing a bit of housekeeping here by shouting out the hall’s various corporate partners, including the guy who just started running Disney, who Sykes tells us is a big Sade fan. This is the kind of stuff you can only get here, folks!
Vanessa Franko: Unfortunately for Josh D’Amaro, Disney’s CE, and us, that wasn’t enough to get Sade here.
MW: I wonder which bigwig’s endorsement might have drawn the elusive chanteuse.
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Welcome to the 2026 Rock Hall Inductions
Mikael Wood: Greetings from the Peacock Theater, where I’m looking around to see if Liam Gallagher of Oasis showed up in one of those mustache-and-glasses jobs just to hear what nice things people say about him tonight.
Vanessa Franko: No sign of the Gallaghers in disguise, sadly. Liam and his brother Noel aren’t the only inductees who opted to skip this evening’s ceremony — Iron Maiden is in Australia on tour (let’s hope we get a live feed of them a la Chubby Checker last year), while Sade and various members of New Order also declined to come. It’s not dampening the spirit here at the Peacock, though. The fashion is fascinating. Some people are dressed casually, some in cocktail attire, many in leather jackets (guilty) and people are ready to party. There are concession lines on every level.
Personally, I can’t wait to see Billy Idol. We know he is here — L.A. named yesterday Billy Idol day!
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Nobody’s figured out how to stop Billy Idol
In the space of six days last week, Billy Idol sang his classic “Rebel Yell” with Carrie Underwood on TV’s “American Idol,” popped out for a surprise performance of “Eyes Without a Face” with Sombr at the Coachella festival and was named a member of the Class of 2026 set to be inducted later this year into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
“Keeping busy,” the singer said — blond hair still spiky, upper lip temporarily unsnarled — at his home in the Hollywood Hills during a break from all the action.
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Phil Collins, Billy Idol and Wu-Tang Clan lead 2026 Rock Hall inductees
Phil Collins, Luther Vandross, Oasis, Billy Idol, Iron Maiden, Sade, Wu-Tang Clan, Joy Division and New Order will join the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year at its annual induction ceremony, the organization announced Monday evening. The news was revealed on “American Idol” by Lionel Richie, a judge on the TV talent show who was himself inducted into the hall in 2022.
The 2026 class of inductees — set to be welcomed Nov. 14 in a ceremony at the Peacock Theatre in downtown Los Angeles — represents a broad array of styles and genres, including hip-hop, R&B, Britpop, heavy metal and post-punk. Yet the group contains only two women: the Nigerian-British soul singer Sade and New Order’s Gillian Gilbert; that result is likely to attract criticism after years in which organizers have sought to diversify the hall’s ranks along race and gender lines.
