Lionel Richie, Eminem, Dolly Parton Among 2022 Rock Hall Inductees

Eminem and Lionel Richie are among the newly-announced list of inductees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 37th annual ceremony. Set for November 5 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, the event will also honor Pat Benatar, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Carly Simon, and, after she said she would “accept gracefully” if voted in, Dolly Parton.

The country superstar had previously asked that her nomination be withdrawn, but said last week in an interview with NPR that she would accept the induction even though she “felt like I would be taking away from someone that maybe deserved it, certainly more than me, ’cause I never considered myself a rock artist.” More than 1,000 members of the music industry vote in the annual nominations, including musicians, executives, historians and journalists.

John Sykes, chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, says: “This diverse group of inductees each had a profound impact on the sound of youth culture and helped change the course of rock and roll. Their music moved generations and influenced so many artists that followed.” The November ceremony will be broadcast on SiriusXM satellite radio, with a taped special created for later broadcast on HBO and HBO Max.

Eminem is being inducted in his first year of being eligible for the Hall, which comes 25 years after their first commercial recording was released. Parton, Richie, Simon, and Duran Duran were also on the ballot for the first time, although all of their careers date back far longer than the rapper’s, as do those of Benatar and Eurythmics, who had previous nominations.

The Musical Excellence Award will go to metal veterans Judas Priest and to trailblazing producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. The Early Influence Award will go to entertainer and humanitarian Harry Belafonte, now aged 95, and the late Elizabeth Cotten. The Ahmet Ertegun Award, named after the late co-founder of Atlantic Records, who also co-formed the Hall of Fame, will be presented to Interscope co-founder Jimmy Iovine, Sugar Hill co-founder Sylvia Robinson and lawyer Allen Grubman.

Others from the list of nominees that was announced in February who miss out on induction for 2022 are Beck, A Tribe Called Quest, Kate Bush, Devo, Fela Kuti, the MC5, the New York Dolls, Rage Against the Machine, and Dionne Warwick.