Rock Hall Names 2019 Induction Speakers: Trent Reznor, David Byrne, Janelle Monaé
By Tom Breihan
“Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, who knows what that is. I don’t give a shit. It’s irritating every year that suddenly my inbox lights up with, ‘Oh man, sorry about …’ I don’t give a fuck!” That was Trent Reznor, talking to Stereogum last year about all the times that the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame has opted not to induct Nine Inch Nails. But it turns out that Trent Reznor gives at least a tiny bit of a fuck. He gives enough of a fuck, in any case, to show up to this year’s induction ceremony.
Late last year, the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame named the seven acts that would be inducted into the Hall this year — a loaded class that includes Radiohead, the Cure, and Janet Jackson. And now, the Hall Of Fame has named the speakers who will induct those acts at this year’s ceremony, which goes down 3/29 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. One of them is Trent Reznor, who will induct the Cure.
Among this year’s speakers’ there are two who are already in the Hall Of Fame. David Byrne, a Hall Of Famer as a member of the Talking Heads, will induct Radiohead, though there’s at least a chance that nobody from Radiohead will be there to accept the induction. (Thom Yorke has said that he won’t be there.) And Queen’s Brian May, a man enjoying a surge of interest in recent months, will induct fellow shamelessly theatrical UK rockers Def Leppard.
The other speakers: Janelle Monaé (inducting Janet Jackson), Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon and John Taylor (inducting Roxy Music), Harry Styles (inducting Stevie Nicks), and the Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs (inducting the Zombies). It’s probably worth noting that Duran Duran and the Bangles have both been eligible for years, and that neither one has ever been nominated for the Hall Of Fame. (Nine Inch Nails have been nominated twice, and they’ve been eligible for five years.)
