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Janet Jackson joins her brother Michael and the Jackson 5 as members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, earning induction on December 13 along with Stevie Nicks and the top fan vote-getter, Def Leppard.
Radiohead, the Cure, Roxy Music and the Zombies will also be ushered in next spring at the 34th induction ceremony. It will be held March 29 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Jackson’s induction comes after her third time as nominee and many saw it as overdue, given her prowess as a hitmaker with ‘All For You’, ‘That’s the Way Love Goes’, ‘Nasty’, ‘Together Again’ and ‘What Have You Done For Me Lately’.
Her career suffered from the fallout after the infamous 2004 Super Bowl appearance where her upper body was briefly exposed by Justin Timberlake — both said it was a mistake.
But she’s had a resurgence of late including an acclaimed tour, headlining festival stints, multiple lifetime achievement honours and a No. 1 album on the main Billboard chart.
Jackson became eligible for the rock hall in 2007 and wasn’t nominated until 2016.
The Roots’ Questlove, in a social media post earlier this year, said her exclusion had been “highly criminal.” He cited the influence of her 1986 album ‘Control’, which he said set off the New Jack Swing trend.
Jackson said on Thursday: “Thank you Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I am truly honoured and I am happy to be in there with my brothers.”
It will be Nicks’ second induction into the rock hall, since she’s already there as a member of Fleetwood Mac. She launched a solo career in 1981 with her duet with the late Tom Petty, ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’. Other hits followed, including ‘Edge of Seventeen’, ‘Stand Back’ and ‘I Will Run to You’.
Def Leppard earned more than half a million votes from fans, which are incorporated into more than 1,000 ballots from artists, historians, industry professionals and past winners in deciding who gets honoured. The British heavy metal band with a pop sheen were huge sellers in the 1980s on the back of songs like ‘Photograph’ and ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’.
Frontman Joe Elliott said he was initially ambivalent toward the honour until Jon Bon Jovi suggested it would change his life.
“When I look at the list of who’s in, it’s just obvious you’d want to be in that club, isn’t it?” he told Billboard earlier this year. “When you think that every band that means anything in the world, starting from the Beatles and the Stones and any artist that influenced them — your Chuck Berrys, your Little Richards, etc., etc. — then of course you want to be in. Why wouldn’t you?”
Def Leppard, Nicks and Roxy Music were voted in during their first years as nominees. Other 2019 nominees who didn’t make the cut included LL Cool J, Devo, Rage Against the Machine, MC5, John Prine, Todd Rundgren and Kraftwerk.
There’s some question about whether Radiohead will shrug its collective shoulder as an inductees. The English band seemed like generic grunge rockers on their initial hit ‘Creep’, but with the album ‘OK Computer’ and beyond have become consistent sonic pioneers. Among its rock hall class, Radiohead has the most impact on the current music scene.
