By Steve Newton
It looks like Newt’s Rock Hall won’t be closing down any time soon.
Three months ago I posted a blog in which I stated that, once the waaaaayyyy overdue inductions of Johnny Winter and Rory Gallagher into the official Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced, I’d be shuttering the underground Rock Hall I’ve operated online from a secret base near Vancouver, Canada, since 2015.
Last November the brainiacs at the RRHOF finally inducted Link Wray, so I thought there might be some hope that they’d come to their senses and consider Johnny and Rory, who I reckon are the other two legendary rockers most worthy of initiation.
But yesterday those braindead twits in Cleveland announced their 15 nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2024, and decided that artists like Mariah Carey, Cher, Kool & the Gang, and Sade are more “rock and roll” than my two guys.
I know, right? It’s insane!
I’m not so perturbed by the nomination of rock acts like Foreigner and Oasis and Lenny Kravitz, but still–they aren’t in the same league as Johnny Winter and Rory Gallagher as far as influence and raw talent and instrumental mastery are concerned.
And I was flabbergasted to see that genius songwriter Warren Zevon–who was actually nominated last year but lost out to the likes of George Michael and rapper Missy Elliott–wasn’t even on the ballet this year.
Since the official Rock Hall has announced 15 nominees, Newt’s Rock Hall is countering with 15 of its own. Keeping in mind that only artists not already in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame can be chosen, the nominees for Newt’s Rock Hall, Class of 2024 are:
Scorpions, NRBQ, Slade, Midnight Oil, the B-52s, Procol Harum, Joe Satriani, the Shadows, Alice in Chains, the Black Crowes, Canned Heat, Ronnie James Dio, the Sweet, the Runaways. and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
Get your votes in on these acts or whichever ones you think are most deserving. I’ll announce the 2024 inductees into Newt’s Rock Hall sometime in late April, at the same time as that other Rock Hall announces theirs, and include the same amount of inductees (usually it’s between six and 12 or so.)
For those who haven’t been keeping track, here’s the full list of inductees into Newt’s Rock Hall, since it was established in June of 2015. Shocking that none of these are in the actual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, right? (Please note: due to health concerns my Hall was shuttered during the pandemic, so there were no Classes of 2021 and 2022.
Class of 2023: Soundgarden, the Guess Who, the Replacements, Bad Company, the Edgar Winter Group, Mahogany Rush, and the Stray Cats.
Class of 2020: Rainbow, BTO, Steve Earle, Mahogany Rush, Little Feat, Boston (replacing Judas Priest, who were finally inducted into the RRHOF in 2022), and Badfinger (replacing Todd Rundgren, finally inducted into the RRHOF in 2021).
Class of 2019: Mountain, the Cramps, Roy Buchanan, Nazareth, the Georgia Satellites, the New York Dolls, and the Tragically Hip (yes, I’m Canadian).
Class of 2018: Motörhead, Free, the MC5, Humble Pie, the J. Geils Band, and Angel City (replacing T. Rex, finally inducted into the RRHOF in 2020).
Class of 2017: Warren Zevon, Albert Collins, Ronnie Montrose, Rick Derringer, Gary Moore, and Jethro Tull.
Class of 2016: Blue Oyster Cult, Mott the Hoople, UFO, Ten Years After, and Robin Trower.
Class of 2015: Rory Gallagher, Johnny Winter, Dick Dale (replacing Link Wray, finally inducted into the RRHOF in 2023), Iron Maiden, and Thin Lizzy (replacing Deep Purple, finally inducted into the RRHOF in 2016).
To hear my audio interviews with the legends of rock since 1982, become a patron of the Newt on Patreon. The raw, unedited interviews posted so far include current Newt’s Rock Hall inductees Gary Moore, Dick Dale, Warren Zevon, Iron Maiden (Bruce Dickinson, Dave Murray, and Steve Harris), Blue Oyster Cult (Buck Dharma), Albert Collins, Ronnie Montrose, Motorhead (Lemmy Kilmister), Mountain (Leslie West), Paul Rodgers (Free and Bad Company), the Cramps (Poison Ivy), Roy Buchanan, the Georgia Satellites (Rick Richards), Steve Earle, Little Feat (Bill Payne), and the Tragically Hip (Gord Downie, Rob Baker).
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Blues never gets any lov thate from the establishment.