The 2021 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Honors Legendary Rockstars With Powerful Performances

Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

This past Saturday, the most recent inductees into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame were honored with the annual celectration ceremony.

As usual, many iconic celebrities made surprise appearances including Eminem, Dave Chapelle, and Jennifer Lopez. As expected, the night was filled with powerful performances from LL Cool J, Christina Aguilera, The Go-Go’s, Taylor Swift singing her own version of Carole King’s Will You Love Me Tomorrow, and Jennifer Hudson singing Aretha Franklin’s (whos she recently portrayed in the biopic Respect) (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman. Carole King, one of the year’s inductees, stepped on the stage to perform You’ve Got A Friend, which she says may be her last performance ever.

Many of the night’s inductors got extra creative in announcing the honors. Instead of dawning a fancy gown, Drew Barrymore inducted The Go-Go’s looking like she was relaxing at a spa. The actress wore a bath towel around her body with white paint on her face to recreate the cover of The Go-Go’s album Beauty and the Beat.

Not every award-winner was present for the event. Todd Rundgren has always made his point that he has no interest in the Rock Hall so he instead booked a concert in Cincinnati on the same night.

But one particular guest made quite an exceptional impression on the audience. Paul McCartney inducted The Foo Fighters with a speech that displayed his deep admiration and respect for the band.

“We had a great time with our groups [the Beatles and Nirvana], but eventually tragedy happened and my group broke up,” Paul McCartney said as he compared Wings to Foo Fighters. “Same happened with Dave. His group broke up under tragic circumstances. So the question is, what do you do now? We both were presented with that question. In my case, I said, ‘Well, I’ll make an album where I play all the instruments myself.’ So I did that. Dave’s group broke up, what’s he do? He makes an album where he plays all the instruments himself. Do you think this guy’s stalking me?”

After Foo Fighters performed about ten hard-hitting minutes of their own popular songs, McCartney joined them for a grand finale of The Beatles Get Back. Watch the speech and performance here:

The 2021 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Inductees:

Performer Category:

• Tina Turner
• Carole King
• The Go-Go’s
• JAY-Z
• Foo Fighters
• Todd Rundgren

Early Influence Award:

• Kraftwerk
• Charley Patton
• Gil Scott-Heron

Musical Excellence Award:

• LL Cool J
• Billy Preston
• Randy Rhoads

Ahmet Ertegun Award:

• Clarence Avant