Missy Elliott, George Michael, Kate Bush entering Rock Hall of Fame

Sheryl Crow delivered a foot-stomping medley of her greatest hits as she was inducted Friday into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as part of a class that also includes Missy Elliott and the late George Michael.

Rock experimentalist Kate Bush, agitators Rage Against the Machine, country icon Willie Nelson and R&B group The Spinners rounded out the 2023 class of inductees.

The concert gala at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center got underway with heartland rocker Crow belting tracks including “If It Makes You Happy” alongside Olivia Rodrigo, before Stevie Nicks and Peter Frampton also joined in the party.

“Music really helped me navigate my emotions,” the 61-year-old told journalists backstage, wearing a glittering velvet jacket with equally starry black jeans and a turquoise-studded belt.

“I’m a big believer in manifesting,” she said. “All of my energy went into expressing my experiences through music and through words and, lo and behold, I got back what I put out.”

Michael, who died in 2016 at age 53, was inducted by his other half from the hit duo Wham!, with a medley performance from Miguel, Adam Levine and Carrie Underwood, who sang “One More Try.”

Andrew Ridgeley told the audience his musical partner “would have been delighted and flattered over his inclusion into these hallowed ranks.”

“George was one of the greatest singers of our time, his voice was sublime.” he said. “His pain healed ours and his grace gave hope.”

– ‘Expands your mind’ –

DJ Kool Herc and Link Wray were inducted as “influences” and the late creator of “Soul Train,” Don Cornelius, received a non-performer honor.

LL Cool J inducted DJ Kool Herc — the 68-year-old credited with mixing the first known breakbeat and ushering in the birth of hip hop.

Herc broke down in tears in accepting the honor, thanking influences including James Brown, Harry Belafonte, Marcus Garvey — and his sister Cindy, who hosted the history-making hip-hop party.

Jazmine Sullivan inducted funk queen Chaka Khan, who received a musical excellence award and performed a string of her songs with R&B artist H.E.R. and Sia.

Also receiving musical excellence awards were Al Kooper and Bernie Taupin, best known for his long songwriting partnership with Elton John.
Elliott is the first woman in hip-hop to enter the music pantheon making the cut in her first year of eligibility — musicians can be inducted 25 years after their first commercial release.

Fellow rap star Queen Latifah will induct the artist behind smashes including “Lose Control” and “Get Ur Freak On” into the coveted music industry club.

Rapper Big Boi inducted Kate Bush, who earlier Friday released a statement apologizing for being unable to attend.

“I am completely blown away by this huge honor — an award that sits in the big beating heart of the American music industry,” Bush said in a statement on her website.

Big Boi, who was one half of the duo Outkast, called Bush “without equal,” also acknowledging the resurgence in popularity among Gen Z she’s experienced with her 1985 hit “Running Up that Hill” going viral on TikTok after it was on the show “Stranger Things.”

“If you were to hear Kate’s music for the first time, why wouldn’t you think that she was a current artist?” the rapper said of the 65-year-old.
“She challenges me as a listener and expands my ears and my mind.”

– Evolving image –

The Cleveland-based Hall of Fame — which surveyed more than 1,000 musicians, historians and industry members to choose the entrants — will honor the acts in a star-studded gala concert at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

For some time now the institution has defined “rock” less in terms of genre than of spirit, with a number of rap, pop, R&B and country stars included.

But the institution is a music industry pillar that, much like the Recording Academy that runs the Grammys, has in recent years worked to revamp its image — long criticized as too masculine and too white.

Women represent fewer than 100 of the nearly 1,000 Hall inductees since 1986.

The Hall of Fame’s image problem resurfaced earlier this year, when Jann Wenner — one of the Hall’s board members who helped start the institution — made comments disparaging women and people of color in an interview with The New York Times.

The comments were widely eviscerated as racist and sexist, and Wenner was swiftly axed from the Hall’s board of directors.

In a recent interview Hall of Fame Chairman John Sykes emphasized efforts to “update the general voting body” to “reflect the artists that are eligible” for the Hall.

“I want to make sure the voting body is young and diverse enough to really make the most educated decisions about who should be inducted,” he told The New York Times. (BSS/AFP)