TORONTO — An iconic Canadian band and one with roots in Canada are being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Thursday night.
Toronto-based Rush and Vancouver-bred Heart are among the acts being honoured at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. The show will be broadcast on HBO on May 18.
Rush — made up of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart — was formed in 1968 in Toronto. (Original drummer John Rutsey, who was replaced by Peart in 1974, died in 2008.)
The band, which was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1994, has sold more than 40 million albums around the world and continues to perform to sold-out crowds.
“To be sitting here, all these years later and to still have people come up to us on the street on a daily basis, and to see the kind of thanks…they’re thanking us for what we do — I mean, that blows me away,” Lee, 59, told ABC News Radio.
Rush will be honoured at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction by Foo Fighters members Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins.
See Rush By The Numbers below.
Heart, whose original members were sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson and brothers Mike and Roger Fisher, formed in the early ’70s in Vancouver. The band’s debut album Dreamboat Annie was recorded in the city and released only in Canada at first, selling 30,000 copies. It was then released south of border and sold more than a million copies thanks to singles like “Crazy For You.”
The group went on to sell more than 30 million albums worldwide and earn four Grammy nominations.
Heart will be inducted by Chris Cornell of Soundgarden.
Also being inducted Thursday in L.A. are rap group Public Enemy, the late bluesman Albert King, singer-songwriter Randy Newman and the late disco singer Donna Summer. Producer-composer Quincy Jones and producer Lou Adler are set to receive lifetime achievement awards — the latter from Edmonton native Tommy Chong.
Additional presenters and performers include Usher, Carole King, John Mayer, Christina Aguilera and Jennifer Hudson.
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