Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame CEO Explains Why They Didn’t Induct Iron Maiden But Chose Jay-Z

During a recent conversation with WBAB radio station, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s CEO Greg Harris shared his views considering the negative reaction they received after not inducting Iron Maiden and Rage Against the Machine but giving a slot to a rapper.

As you probably know, this year six new names were inducted into the RRHF; Foo Fighters, Tina Turner, The Go-Go’s, Carole King, Todd Rundgren, and Jay-Z. Rage Against the Machine and Iron Maiden, who’ve been eligible for induction for decades now, were also nominated.

However, they were eventually not inducted to the RRHF which angered millions of rock and metal fans, especially about Iron Maiden as they are considered to be one of the most influential bands of metal history. Gene Simmons was one of the rockstars who spoke up and called the Hall a ‘sham’ and ‘disgusting’ for not including Maiden and RATM.

In his recent interview, Greg Harris responded to the criticisms that they have received in the past days, especially in relation to not Iron Maiden and Jay-Z, and said that although Maiden is an ‘impactful, influential band,’ which is the reason why they were nominated in the first place, they lost the voting.

He went on to say that people’s tastes vary a lot and that 80% of the bands that have been nominated in the history of RRHF have been eventually inducted into the Hall. When asked about Jay-Z, Harris said that rock and roll is a very ‘diverse’ genre and as they’ve inducted numerous hip-hop artists in the Hall, there’s nothing they can do about it now, ‘that ship has sailed.’

Here’s what Greg Harris said during the interview:

“There’s no doubt that Iron Maiden is an impactful, influential band, and that’s why they were nominated this year, along with 15 other artists and acts, and when the votes came in, these six were the leaders. So we’re not questioning, are they an important band, are they impactful and influential.

Of those that have been nominated throughout history, over 80 percent of them have been eventually inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. So everybody has their favorites; everybody has different artists that impacted them or impacted other artists. So, if you look at this list, you can make that case for all of these folks, just like people make that case for Iron Maiden.”

He went on to say:

“Rock and roll was never just four skinny guys with long hair and guitars; it’s always been diverse… We take that interpretation that these are all variants of rock and roll. And I think, underneath it, it frequently gets to the hip-hop question because some people are not fans. Well, the fact of the matter is that ship has sailed. We’ve inducted quite a few artists in that canon. It’s a big tent and everybody fits under it. It’s an attitude, it’s a spirit, and that’s rock and roll.”

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