Rock Hall shuns Johnny Winter and Rory Gallagher yet again, nominates rock ‘n’ roll legends Mariah Carey, New Edition, and P!nk instead

By Steve Newton

Those braindead twats down at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have done it again.

Instead of finally giving up their mindless refusal to nominate legendary guitar heroes Johnny Winter and Rory Gallagher–who’ve been eligible for induction for decades now–today they’ve opted to open the door to the likes of non-rockers P!nk, Mariah Carey, New Edition, and Luther Vandross.

I mean, come on! If you were to check out the record collection of any diehard rock ‘n’ roll fan, do you think they’d be showing off their CD versions of P!nk’s double-platinum 2000 debut Can’t Take Me Home, or Vandross’s multiple Grammy-winning 2003 release Dance with My Father?

No friggin’ way. They’d be diggin’ around for dog-eared vinyl copies of Winter’s 1973 barnburner Still Alive and Well, or maybe Gallagher’s blues-drenched and slide-infested Live! in Europe from ’72. You know, rock albums that have stood the test of time for over half a century. The type of historical discs from long-gone recording artists whose names you’d totally expect to find in any self-respecting “Hall of Fame”.

Three years ago I posted a blog in which I declared that whenever Johnny and Rory both got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I would shut down Newt’s Rock Hall, the unofficial institution I created back in 2015 to honour all the amazing bands and musicians who’ve been shunned by that other, better known Rock Hall in Cleveland.

But it looks like whoever’s in charge at the RRHOF didn’t get that memo, ’cause here I am still complaining about their most egregious errors when it comes to paying tribute to the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ rollers.

Admittedly, not all of the 17 nominees announced today are unworthy of consideration. Some of them are actually already members of Newt’s Rock Hall, like Iron Maiden (the inaugural class of 2015), INXS (class of 2023), and the Black Crowes (class of 2024). But the strict rules of my rock hall require that there can be no crossover between inductees in the RRHOF and NRH, so if either Maiden, INXS, or the Crowes win this year, I’ll have to replace them in my rock hall with some other deserving acts.

When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announces its class of 2026 inductees this April, I’ll announce mine as well. Send me your personal nominees in the comments, why don’tcha?

Here’s the complete list of Newt’s Rock Hall inductees so far. (Can you believe that none of these are in the “official” Rock and Roll Hall of Fame yet?):

Class of 2025: Mick Ronson, Ian Hunter, Slade, Canned Heat, Procol Harum, the B-52s, and Alice in Chains.

Class of 2024: Scorpions, NRBQ, Midnight Oil, the Shadows, the Black Crowes, Ronnie James Dio, Danny Gatton, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

Subscribe to my Patreon page to hear the full audio of my one-on-one interviews with current and former Newt’s Rock Hall inductees, including J.J. Cale, Gary Moore, Dick Dale, Roy Buchanan, Steve Earle, Robin Trower, Ronnie James Dio, Danny Gatton, Albert Collins, Jeff Healey, Ronnie Montrose, Chris Cornell, Warren Zevon, Mick Ronson, Ian Hunter, and members of Deep Purple (Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Steve Morse), Iron Maiden (Bruce Dickinson, Dave Murray, and Steve Harris), Judas Priest (Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton), Blue Oyster Cult (Buck Dharma), Jethro Tull (Ian Anderson, Martin Barre), Mountain (Leslie West), the New York Dolls (David Johansen), Boston (Brad Delp), Angel City (Doc Neeson), the Black Crowes (Chris and Rich Robinson), the Guess Who (Randy Bachman), Nazareth (Dan McCafferty), ELP (Greg Lake), the Cramps (Poison Ivy), Scorpions (Rudolf Schenker, Klaus Meine), Alice in Chains (Jerry Cantrell), NRBQ (Terry Adams, Joey Stampinato), the Georgia Satellites (Rick Richards), Little Feat (Bill Payne), and the Tragically Hip (Gord Downie, Rob Baker).