BAD COMPANY and SOUNDGARDEN are among the 2025 inductees into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Other inductees in the Performer category are Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, OutKast and THE WHITE STRIPES.
Salt-N-Pepa and Warren Zevon will be presented with the Musical Influence Award; Philly soul songwriter/producer Thom Bell, keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, and Wrecking Crew bassist Carol Kaye will receive the Musical Excellence Awards; and former Warner Bros. Records president Lenny Waronker will get the Ahmet Ertegun Award.
“Each of these inductees created their own sound and attitude that had a profound impact on culture and helped to change the course of rock and roll forever,” said John Sykes, chairman of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. “Their music gave a voice to generations and influenced countless artists that followed in their footsteps.”
The induction ceremony will be held on November 8 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. It will once again stream live on Disney+, and an edited version will air on ABC at a later date.
The 2025 inductees were announced live earlier tonight on ABC by host Ryan Seacrest during the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame episode of “American Idol”.
In a recent interview with U.K. radio veteran Paul Stephenson of VRP Rocks, BAD COMPANY drummer Simon Kirke spoke about the British supergroup’s Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame nomination, which was announced in February 2025 after decades of eligibility. Asked how it feels to finally be nominated, Simon said: “Well, it’s the first time we’ve been nominated, and a very good friend of mine is Nicko McBrain from IRON MAIDEN. And he sent me a congratulatory text. He said, ‘By the way, Simon, MAIDEN have been nominated 11 fucking times and we haven’t been inducted ever. So our management wrote to the Hall Of Fame and said, ‘Stop nominating us. Bollocks. Fuck off.
“What can I say? If I was truly honest, I would say it’s about time because we’ve been around for so long,” Simon continued. “And hello? How about FREE, which superseded BAD COMPANY? A lot of people have a lot of affection for FREE.
“As I see it, there are 14 nominees, and it’s the first four [in the fan vote] that get inducted,” Kirke added. “That’s my belief. We are behind PHISH who have a huge social media presence. I’ve never really heard PHISH, quite honestly — they’re like the younger version of the GRATEFUL DEAD, but they’ve got just under 200,000 [fan] votes. We have about 180,000, so we’re second. I’m told by an insider that we are gonna get in. we will actually know on Monday or Tuesday. So, yeah, I’ve already spoken with Paul [Rodgers, BAD COMPANY singer] about what song we’re gonna play, and it’s gonna be ‘Can’t Get Enough’. And, yeah, I’m happy — I’ll be happy for Mick [Ralphs, BAD COMPANY guitarist], ’cause Mick had a stroke several years ago and he is in not good shape. And as long as he holds out when we get on that stage in November, we’re gonna give a shoutout to Mick. Because he wrote the damn song — he wrote ‘Movin’ On’ and he wrote a lot of the hits and he deserves it.”
Asked what Paul‘s reaction was to BAD COMPANY‘s Rock Hall nomination, Simon said: “I met him a few weeks ago on the West Coast. I was playing in a charity golf tournament in Palm Springs, and he winters in Palm Springs. So we actually got together, and I said, ‘What do you think?’ He said, ‘About fucking time.’ We are pleased and we are honored, but there was always this nagging — every year that passed, we didn’t even get a nomination. ‘Cause there’s two steps — nomination, then induction. And we weren’t even nominated for all those years. And it was beginning to gnaw at me. But anyway, Paul was ‘Yeah, about the time. What are we gonna play?’ And I said, ‘Well, ‘Can’t Get Enough’,’ because Mick won’t be there; he can’t travel. And it seemed to be the right thing to do. So, yeah, that’s it.”
Asked if he ever got a reason why BAD COMPANY hadn’t been nominated earlier, Simon said: “No. Well… Hmm. There are several reasons. One of them being, I think because BAD COMPANY had three lineups, it kind of diluted our currency, if you will. If you can imagine a band like CREAM and they change Ginger Baker or they change Jack [Bruce] or Eric [Clapton], God forbid, a couple of times, it would kind of dilute and muddy the waters of the committee. So as I’m told by this insider, they wanted to do a FREE–BAD COMPANY doubleheader, as it were, like [when] THE FACES and THE SMALL FACES were inducted, but for some reason it didn’t show up. There was also a political thing that I can’t really go into without gettingkind of into hot water, but it was a combination. I think the main thing was the triple lineup… It just wasn’t a clear-cut ‘Let’s induct BAD COMPANY.’ There were factors that now have dissipated. And it looks like we’re gonna get it. [I] hope so.”
In a statement to Billboard about BAD COMPANY‘s nomination, Rodgers said: “BAD COMPANY fans and friends have been lobbying for this nomination persistently for years and they never gave up, so big thanks to them. According to them, BAD COMPANY fits all of the criteria and then some to be inducted.”
Kirke, for his part, told the publication: “I think it’s been a long time coming. It has rankled me a bit. We’ve been around a long time and we’ve influenced a lot of bands, and I think it’s a place that we deserve. I’m just pleased that we’re at least on the ballot. I’m happy and I’m honored, and fingers crossed that we make it.”
Back in November 2023, Kirke was asked by “The Bob Lefsetz Podcast” how he felt about BAD COMPANY not having been inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. He responded: “I think it’s such a travesty, quite honestly. And not just that, but FREE — FREE certainly should be [in the Hall], because FREE has been around since 1968, and the two bands have been responsible for influencing a lot of bands who are already in the Hall. So I feel pretty bad about it. But I’m not gonna go on too much about it. It’s just I think we should be in. Certainly FREE. And I think Paul Rodgers should be in on his own merits, as one of the great rock vocalists of all time. If Eric Clapton and Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck can be inducted as solo artists, then certainly Paul Rodgers should be in there. That’s my two cents.”
Later in the chat, Kirke offered one possible explanation for why BAD COMPANY had been overlooked by the Rock Hall.
“I think because of BAD COMPANY‘s changing lineups over the 50 years that we’d been together, it kind of devalued our currency a little bit,” he said. “You had the Brian Howe era, you had the Paul Rodgers era, one and two, when Paul rejoined the band, we had Robert Hart. So I honestly don’t know why we have not been nominated — not even inducted; you have to be nominated first, as you know.”
In September 2023, Rodgers told SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” that he wasn’t bothered by his absence from the Rock Hall. “Well, it doesn’t affect my daily life. It doesn’t affect what I do in any way at all,” he said. “It’s one of those things. But I remember years and years ago, Ahmet Ertegun, who was the head of Atlantic Records [and a co-founder of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame], said to me, ‘Paul, we’re making this museum of rock and roll. Do you guys wanna be part of it?’ And I said, ‘What, a museum of rock and roll? What’s it called?’ He said, ‘Well, it’s called the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t think rock and roll belongs in a museum.’ So it’s my bad, I guess. And he asked me a couple of times, and I kind of like refused, I guess, basically. So, you know, there you go. Onwards and upwards.”
SOUNDGARDEN was first nominated for Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame‘s class of 2020.
When the Seattle grunge legends were nominated for the second time in January 2023, SOUNDGARDEN guitarist Kim Thayil told Billboard: “What was cool about [SOUNDGARDEN‘s first nomination in 2020] was just the recognition of the acknowledgement. If you’re involved with your bandmates and fellow musicians in your peer group, you can sometimes get isolated from the general historical context of how the band has evolved and became part of the broader community of music and musicians. So I think that acknowledgement and that recognition was a reminder that, hey, they work that you did with your partners was part of a continuity and a history of music. That’s kind of cool.”
Thayil added that it was late SOUNGARDEN singer Chris Cornell who helped the band get some appreciation of the Rock Hall after he inducted HEART in 2013. “He lived the experience and said the enthusiasm of the fans was eye-opening for him, and understanding how important that was… And I think that’s always been a context in which SOUNDGARDEN would understand its work; we always wanted to be the kind of band for our fans that we looked up to and inspired us. We wanted to be that kind of band would make decisions with regard to that community that had supported us or that we had worked to build, and I think we did a great job of that.”
Source: blabbermouth.net
