The followers of perennially-shunned Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame candidates reminiscent of Warren Zevon and Unhealthy Firm acquired nice information final night time, as their favourite artists have been lastly inducted into the category of 2025.
Phish followers weren’t so fortunate. The jam-rock kings have been probably the most shocking snub from this 12 months’s area of contenders.
The Vermont band, based in 1983, is understood for its distinctive sound influenced by prog rock, jazz, and funk. It’s characterised by twenty-minute, mind-bending improvisational cuts and their maniacal following and counter tradition. The group consists of Trey Anastasio (guitar and lead vocals), Web page McConnell (keyboards and vocals), Mike Gordon (bass and vocals), and Jon Fishman (drums and vocals). Phish actually meets the factors for induction, with their high-demand excursions 12 months after 12 months and a sound that may be a area of interest of its personal. Phish by no means performs the identical set twice, together with 13 consecutive sellouts at Madison Sq. Backyard with no songs repeated, often called “The Baker’s Dozen.”
Watch Phish Carry out ‘Blaze On’
Because the Rock Corridor states, “There’s nothing just like the pure freedom and pleasure of a Phish live performance—a robust communal second typically likened to a non secular expertise, a transcendent second.”
Phish topped the fan votes for this 12 months’s nominees by greater than 50,000 votes however was unnoticed of the occasion. How may that be?
Surprisingly, Billy Idol, who ranked #3 in complete fan voting, was additionally snubbed, receiving greater than 260,000 votes but not making the lower. As you may see from the record under, bands just like the White Stripes made the record regardless of being close to the underside for fan votes, but The Black Crowes additionally missed the mark:
Phish: 329,281 votes
Unhealthy Firm: 280,725 votes
Billy Idol: 260,416 votes
Cyndi Lauper: 236,960 votes
Joe Cocker: 233,495 votes
Soundgarden: 233,205 votes
Chubby Checker: 203,092 votes
The Black Crowes: 165,249 votes
Mariah Carey: 137,993 votes
Pleasure Division + New Order: 120,346 votes
The White Stripes: 110,511 votes
Outkast: 108,073 votes
Oasis: 99,381 votes
Maná: 34,506 votes
Learn Extra: When Phish Staged ‘The Nice Went’
How are the fan votes measured? Reasonably than having a poll for every fan vote, the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame locations the highest 5 on one poll, thus representing solely one in every of 1200 ballots, amid a area of artists, writers and trade executives. This has a minimal impression on the general outcomes, therefore why Billy Idol, The Black Crowes, and Phish missed the mark.
Equally, in 2020, regardless of profitable the fan vote, The Dave Matthews Band was not inducted into the Rock Corridor. Nonetheless, DMB would later be topped 4 years later, in 2024. This isn’t the top of the highway for Phish, who, regardless of being snubbed, are carving a path of their very own. Possibly it is time to think about new metrics for voting.
135 Artists Not within the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame
Many have shared their ideas on potential induction.
Gallery Credit score: Final Basic Rock Workers