It wasn't to be this time, but it came very close! As you saw on Wikimetal , Iron Maiden was recently nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for the first time in their 50-year career.
Part of the process involved a popular vote among the 15 nominees from 2021, where the top 5 would advance to the final admission stage. In the public vote, Iron Maiden achieved 4th place, joining Tina Turner , Fela Kuti and The Go-Go’s , who reached the Top 3, and Foo Fighters , who came in 5th.
On the morning of Tuesday, December 12th, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame released the list of artists who are now part of the Hall of Fame, and with it came a surprise: Iron Maiden is not among the names. Among their colleagues in the Top 5, Tina Turner, Fela Kuti, and the Foo Fighters, who recently celebrated 25 years of their career, becoming eligible for the first time, joined the Class of 2021.
Some of the names accepted into the Hall of Fame even include artists who didn't achieve their desired position in the popular vote, such as Carole King and LL Cool J. Others admitted were rapper Jay-Z and Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Randy Rhoads , who will receive the posthumous Musical Excellence Award. Check out the full list here.
Regarding the choices that surely raised some eyebrows, the president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, John Sykes , commented that this is the "most diverse" class in the institution's history and added: "This represents the Hall's continued commitment to honoring the artists who created not only rock and roll, but the sound of youth culture."
It's worth remembering that in 2018, Bruce Dickinson made a statement saying he considered the Hall of Fame a "big load of rubbish" run by "hypocritical Americans who wouldn't know what rock is even if you punched them in the face." Could this be the Hall's personal revenge for that comment?
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