The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2024 inductees were announced Sunday night on American Idol by judge (and Class of 2022 inductee) Lionel Richie, a promotional stunt that likely irked some rock snobs. Some rock purists might have even been less than thrilled that artists like this year's Cher, A Tribe Called Quest, Mary J. Blige, or Kool & the Gang — or even Richie himself — are in the Hall, because these acts are supposedly not "rock 'n' roll."
But Richie, while speaking with Music Times at Monday's American Idol top 10 reveal afterparty in Hollywood, made it clear that there's room in the Rock Hall for all sorts of popular music.
"Let me tell you how I feel about that. I think we've grown," said Richie. "Because if you want to talk about 'rock' — rock came from the blues, OK? So, they finally figured out that soul is not a color. Soul is a feeling. And right now, I think we're finally getting it right, when you can celebrate all people who have touched the world through music. And I think even though we still use the words 'rock 'n' roll,' it now means something a lot broader, in terms of accepting the whole gambit of what music is all about.
"It started with the blues," Richie continued. "Check out the chords, and then we go from there. And then, from those Chuck Berry chords and the Slim Harpo chords and the Muddy Waters chords, they started putting a little fuzz guitar on it — and they called that 'rock 'n' roll.' Come on. Give me a break!"
As for Cher — whose Hall induction announcement got the biggest response from Sunday's Idol studio audience, according to Richie — Richie said, "Let me just give that shout-out to her, because she's still pop culture. She is still happening. With lot of people, you bring them back and you're like, 'Oh, that's who they are. I remember them.' But she is still as current today. And so, when you see her standing on a Grammy stage, or on any stage, she just belongs there. She's still transcending time."
Along with Cher, Richie revealed that the other Class of 2024 inductee he's most personally excited about are his funk/soul peers, Kool & the Gang. "We started out together. I mean, these are the originals. These are the guys," he grinned. "They were actually in the business before the Commodores, two years before we [started]. So, I'm really happy about that. I think that just from that ground floor of my existence, we all kind of got there."
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