The official inductees for the 2020 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame were announced on Wednesday morning.
As chosen by the RRHOF’s voting body and participating fans across the world, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, T. Rex, The Doobie Brothers, Whitney Houston and The Notorious B.I.G. will be joining the ranks of the storied institution in 2020.
The artists will officially be inducted on May 2 at the Public Auditorium in Cleveland, Ohio.
Additionally, acclaimed rock journalist and Bruce Springsteen manager Jon Landau will be inducted into the RRHOF, alongside Irving Azoff, who is often cited as the “ultimate rock manager.” Both will be given an Ahmet Ertegun Award during the ceremony.
Other nominees this year included Motörhead, Soundgarden, Judas Priest and Thin Lizzy; however, they didn’t quite make the cut for the 2020 lineup.
To be eligible for this year’s ballot, each artist was required to have had an album or single released in or prior to 1994. Potential RRHOF inductees were also required to have been active for at least 25 years to be considered.
Though many of this year’s inductees, including Houston and The Notorious B.I.G., were first-time RRHOF nominees, both Nine Inch Nails (or NIN) and Depeche Mode have been previously nominated and left out by the organization’s voting body.
Depeche Mode was first eligible for nomination in 2006 and received its first nomination in 2018.
“We’re honoured to be included and to stand alongside the other incredible acts in the Rock Hall and those joining this year,” wrote the British synth-pop group on Twitter.
“A huge thank you to everyone who has supported us and our music over the years.”
While NIN became eligible for induction in 2014, the industrial rock act was “snubbed” in both 2014 and 2015 before being revealed as an official 2020 inductee.
“I’m pretty freaked out. I’m quite in shock,” NIN frontman Trent Reznor — who is often reluctant about winning music awards — told Rolling Stone.
The RRHOF voting body consists of more than 1,000 officials, including journalists, musicians and historians.
Here is the official list of 2020 RRHOF inductees:
- The Doobie Brothers
- The Notorious B.I.G.
- T. Rex
- Whitney Houston
- Depeche Mode
- Nine Inch Nails
- Jon Landau
- Irving Azoff
If you’d like to learn more about any of the 2020 inductees, you can visit the official RRHOF website.
For the first time, the RRHOF induction ceremony will be broadcast live through HBO from the Public Auditorium in Cleveland.
Viewers can tune in to the 35th annual show on Saturday, May 2, at 8 p.m. ET.
Tickets for the event go on sale to RRHOF members on Feb. 25 at 10 a.m.
All remaining tickets will go live on Feb. 27 at the same time.
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