The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025 will gather in a couple of weeks on November 8 for an induction ceremony that has all the appearances of a crash course in how popular music got here — from early dance crazes and classic British rock to the birth of grunge and the golden age of hip-hop.
Held at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, the ceremony will pair reverence with spectacle. Honorees this year include music creators from a wide span of sounds and eras: Bad Company, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, Outkast, Soundgarden, and The White Stripes.
Beyond performers, the Rock Hall will also recognize Salt-N-Pepa and Warren Zevon with the Musical Influence Award; Thom Bell, Nicky Hopkins, and Carol Kaye with the Musical Excellence Award; and veteran executive Lenny Waronker will be honored with the Ahmet Ertegun Award.
Presenters and performers at the ceremony will include established icons and younger stars, with Elton John, Doja Cat, Olivia Rodrigo, Questlove, Missy Elliott, Flea, Iggy Pop, Brandi Carlile, Beck, J.I.D., Killer Mike and several others set to tell stories, introduce inductees, and/or join the honorees onstage to perform.
Behind the red carpet, the Rock Hall’s museum side opened a dedicated 2025 Inductee Exhibit that gives fans a tactile connection to the stories told onstage. The exhibit — which will open to the public at the end of October — assembles artifacts from across the class: handwritten lyrics, iconic instruments, stage outfits and other ephemera that charted creative processes and career milestones. Pieces like Cyndi Lauper’s lyric sheets and outfits from Outkast’s theatrical videos will blend spectacle with documentation.
Sadly, many of the the inductees will be honored posthumously, including Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, Boz Burrell and Mick Ralphs, who are two of the four members of the original Bad Company lineup, along with Thom Bell, Nicky Hopkins, and Warren Zevon.
Television and streaming coverage extended the reach of the ceremony beyond the theater with Disney+ streaming the event live, with a primetime broadcast arrangement to follow on ABC and Hulu — an indication that the Rock Hall is trying to marry the prestige of a live awards spectacle with the accessibility expected by modern audiences.
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