ABC will air The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, featuring performance highlights and standout moments of November’s ceremony, on New Year’s Day at 8 p.m. ET.
Bad Company was one of this year’s inductees, and drummer Simon Kirke says one of the secrets to their success was that they went out of their way to be different.
On the red carpet for this year’s induction, Kirke told ABC Audio that when the band was formed in late 1973 glam rock was huge, thanks to artists like David Bowie, T-Rex and others. He noted, “We wanted to be like the antithesis of that, and I think we just, we succeeded.”
Also inducted this year was Joe Cocker, whose music was celebrated during the ceremony by several artists, including Tedeschi Trucks‘ Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks.
Tedeschi told ABC Audio she was a big fan of how Cocker interpreted songs, sharing, “Honestly that guy, he has so much soul and everything he’s saying, you might not understand all the words, but you felt the words.”
Trucks felt bad Cocker, who passed away in 2014, couldn’t be there to enjoy the induction.
“I mean, it’s a shame he’s not here for it,” he said. “I know it meant a lot to him. He really wanted this to happen.”
This year’s other inductees included Soundgarden, Salt-N-Pepa, The White Stripes, Outkast and Cyndi Lauper.
Lauper believed November’s ceremony was “a great opportunity to bring people together.”
She told KABC-TV, “I grew up believing that rock and roll can save the world and to be part of the community, which I always was, but to remind people who we are and what we have done and what we can do together is kind of why I came.”
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