Just a few months ago, Billy Idol was singing "No More Tears" in Cleveland to help induct Ozzy Osbourne into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Prior to the performance, the Prince of Darkness declared that Idol should be inducted into the Rock Hall. Now, he may have his chance.
On Wednesday (February 12), the "White Wedding" singer was one of 14 nominees for the Rock Hall's 2025 class.
“It’s pretty incredible,” the punk legend told Billboard. “I’m really knocked out. It’s really fantastic, and what a great honor just to be included with those other fellow artists on that list. It caught me by surprise today, and I was completely bowled over.”
Despite being eligible since 2006, this is Idol's first nomination. But he's never felt snubbed. “Well, there’s so many great people who have yet to be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — someone like [fellow nominee] Joe Cocker, for instance,” he noted. “So of course you don’t tend to think about yourself."
Idol's Rock Hall nomination reaction is quite different than Liam Gallagher, whose band Oasis is on the list for the second year in a row. "RNR hall of fame is for WANKERS," the singer posted on X after the nominees were revealed.
Mariah Carey, OutKast, Cyndi Lauper, Maná, Phish, Chubby Checker, The White Stripes, Bad Company, The Black Crowes, Joy Division/New Order, and Soundgarden also made the 2025 nominee list in addition to Idol, Cocker, and Oasis.
When Oasis was first nominated last year, Gallagher slammed the institution for the types of artists going on the ballot. “As much as I love Mariah Carey and all that, I want to say: do me a favour and f**k off," he said in an interview at the time. “It’s like putting me in the rap hall of fame, and I don’t want to be part of anything that mentally disturbed. Besides, I’ve done more for rock n’ roll than half of them clowns on that board, so it’s all a load of bollocks.”
Rock Hall chairman John Sykes recently addressed the backlash for inducting artists outside of the rock genre in an interview.
“I think it’s because some people don’t understand the meaning of rock and roll,” he explained. “If you go back to the original sound in the ’50s, it was everything. As Missy Elliott calls it, it was a gumbo. It just became known as rock and roll. So when I hear people say, ‘You should just change it to the Music Hall of Fame,’ rock and roll has pretty much covered all of that territory.”
“Rather than throwing the name out, it’s doing a better job of communicating to people where rock and roll came from and what it’s truly about," he continued. "Once they hear it that way, they understand.”