With artists from Soundgarden and Outkast to the White Stripes and Salt-n-Pepa, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame got both younger and more diverse as its 2025 induction ceremonies returned to Los Angeles on Saturday, Nov. 8
Sure, the hall still had room for classic icons such as Bad Company, Joe Cocker and Chubby Checker, and it also found room for Warren Zevon, too.
Then there was Cyndi Lauper, the last of this year’s nine acts inducted either as performers or for their musical influence, whose performance crossed as many lines as she had colors in her hair.
Inductee Jack White of The White Stripes speaks onstage during the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Peacock Theater on Nov. 8, 2025 in Los Angeles. Meg White, his partner in the garage duo, seen in the photograph with Jack White, was not at the ceremony. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for RRHOF) Iggy Pop speaks as he inducts the White Stripes into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) Toni Cornell, daughter of the late Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell, performs onstage during Soundgarden’s induction into the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at Peacock Theater on Nov. 8, 2025 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for RRHOF) Sandra Denton aka Pepa, DJ Spinderella and Cheryl James aka Salt perform onstage during their induction to 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at Peacock Theater on Nov. 8, 2025 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for RRHOF) Chappell Roan inducts Cyndi Lauper into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) Flea and Beck perform onstage during a tribute to the late Sly Stone at the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Peacock Theater on Nov. 8, 2025 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for RRHOF) Stevie Wonder performs onstage during a tribute to the late Sly Stone at the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Peacock Theater on Nov. 8, 2025 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for RRHOF) Big Boi and Andre 3000 of Outkast speak onstage during the their induction into 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at Peacock Theater on Nov. 8, 2025 in Los Angeles.. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for RRHOF) Elton John performs “God Only Knows during a tribute to the late Brian Wilson during the 2025 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) Cyndi Lauper performs during her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) Missy Elliott inducts Salt-N-Pepa during the 2025 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) Susan Tedeschi, left, of Tedeschi Trucks Band and Nathaniel Rateliff perform during the induction of Joe Cocker into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) Inductee Kim Thayil of Soundgarden speaks onstage during the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Peacock Theater on Nov. 8, 2025 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for RRHOF) Jennifer Hudson and Maxwell perform onstage during a tribute to the late Sly Stone at the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Peacock Theater on Nov. 8, 2025 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for RRHOF) Tyler the Creator performs onstage during the induction of the hip-hop duo Outkast at the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Peacock Theater on Nov. 8, 2025 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for RRHOF) Teddy Swims, from left, Cyndi Lauper and Bryan Adams perform during the induction of Joe Cocker into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) Brandon Flowers, right, performs Warren Zevon’s “Lawyers, Guns and Money” during the 2025 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) Cyndi Lauper, left and Chappell Roan react during Lauper’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) Chappell Roan performs during the 2025 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) Avril Lavigne, left and Cyndi Lauper perform “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” during Lauper’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) Show Caption1 of 20Inductee Jack White of The White Stripes speaks onstage during the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Peacock Theater on Nov. 8, 2025 in Los Angeles. Meg White, his partner in the garage duo, seen in the photograph with Jack White, was not at the ceremony. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for RRHOF) ExpandShe opened her three-song performance on Saturday with “True Colors,” a song that’s become an anthem for the LGBTQ+ community, pausing it near the end for a moment of silence and a raised fist in front of the Progress Pride flag, a symbol for a more inclusive society.
“See what happens when you let the riffraff in?” Lauper joked as she accepted the Hall of Fame statue minutes later.
“I know that I stand on the shoulders of the women in the industry who came before me, and my shoulders are broad enough to have the women who come after me to stand on mine,” she continued while in the background, Chappell Roan who had introduced Lauper, got teary eyed.
“The little kid in me still believes that rock and roll can save the world,” Lauper said. “Rock and roll is a big wonderful quilt of a lot of different styles in music, thank goodness. And all of it has influenced me and my work.
“So I just want to say now, of all times, let’s come together again and do good in the world. Because it needs us.”
Here’s how the rest of five-and-a-half hour show, which edited and condensed will air on ABC on New Year’s Day, went down.
Musical magic
At its heart, these induction ceremonies are all-star bashes, with legends and rising stars on stage together all night long.
A tribute to the late Sly Stone kicked things off on Saturday with Stevie Wonder singing “Dance to the Music” in front of a band that include Los Angeles singer-songwriter Beck, the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Flea and the Roots’ Questlove. “Everyday People,” “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),” and “I Want to Take You Higher” followed, with singers Maxwell and Jennifer Hudson joining in.
All of the song performances on Saturday included guest stars, sometimes out of necessity — solo artists Cocker and Zevon have died, as have members of Bad Company and Soundgarden — and sometimes by choice — Andre 3000 of Outkast and Jack White of the White Stripes were at the show but chose to let others perform in their stead.
While they were certainly missed, it opened the doors to unexpected combinations on stage. Bad Company was represented solely by drummer Simon Kirke after singer Paul Rodgers, the only other living member, decided his health did not permit him to attend. Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes and Bryan Adams sang “Feel Like Makin’ Love” and “Can’t Get Enough” in his place, with Nancy Wilson of Heart and Joe Perry of Aerosmith handling guitars.
The Killers stepped in for Warren Zevon on “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” and the Tedeschi-Trucks Band handled the Joe Cocker tribute with singers that included Susan Tedeschi, Nathaniel Rateliff, Teddy Swims, and a return to the stage for Lauper, Adams and Robinson.
Outkast had almost as many guests on stage with co-founder Big Boi, a crew that included Doja Cat, Killer Mike, JID, Sleepy Brown, and Janelle Monáe, the latter of whose performance of the Outkast hit “Hey Ya” was one of the best performances of the night.
Soundgarden, whose singer Chris Cornell died in 2017, brought out Taylor Momsen for “Rusty Cage,” an unexpected Brandi Carlile for “Black Hole Sun,” and Cornell’s daughter Toni Cornell for “Fell on Black Days,” for which she was accompanied by Heart’s Nancy Wilson and a cellist in place of the Soundgarden band.
All three members of Salt-N-Pepa — Cheryl James as Salt, Sandra Denton as Pepa, and Deidra Roper as DJ Spinderella — were present for their induction. Their medley included such hits as “Push It!” “Let’s Talk About Sex,” and “Whatta Man,” for which En Vogue joined them on stage.
With Meg White unable to attend the show, Jack White turned the White Stripes performance over to Olivia Rodrigo and Feist for a lovely acoustic version of “We’re Going to Be Friends,” and had Twenty One Pilots stand in for “Seven Nation Army.”
Chubby Checker chose to keep a gig he’d booked in Illinois on Saturday but beamed in by satellite to accept his honors and perform a bit of “The Twist,” the tune that made his name.
May we present …
The presenters of inductees on Saturday also provided highlights throughout the night, some sweet and gentle — Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood welcoming Bad Company drummer Simon Kirke to the hall — and some wild and hilarious.
Iggy Pop delivered one of the latter when he inducted fellow Detroiters the White Stripes. “I got to get this out of my system,” Iggy aid at the start of his speech, and then went into a dunnn-dun-dun-dun-dunnn-dun chat in homage to opening chords of “Seven Nation Army.”
“The White Stripes were not like the other bands,” he continued. “The first time I saw them it was in a photograph. It was just the two of them standing there side by side, just grinning Like they had some secret. Like they had just stolen some cookies or something.
“I thought, ‘cute kids, they’ll probably go places.’ And hey, they did!”
David Letterman, who became close to Zevon through hosting him often on his late-night TV show, delivered one of the most moving yet also funny tributes of the night.
He announced he’d come up with three categories of songs Zevon liked to write. The first category, songs about global and personal strife, included “Excitable Boy,” a tune Letterman described as “about a boy who gets very excited about pot roast.” The second, love songs that make you cry, included “Searching for a Heart,” of which he said, “Whenever I listen to this song, it’s always like the first time I’ve heard it, and then I start to cry.”
The third category? “Songs about werewolves. This is about a werewolf in London, and I don’t know if this is a true story, but there you have it.”
The last time Letterman saw Zevon before his death was 22 years ago after his last performance on Letterman’s show. Zevon had been public about his illness, and Letterman followed him to his dressing room to chat while Zevon changed clothes and packed up.
“He closes the guitar case, he hands it to me and he says, ‘Take care of this for me,’” Letterman said. “So in my head, I think I’ve seen this movie. I know what’s supposed to happen now, and sure as hell, it did happen. I started to sob uncontrollably. Warren and I hugged and I said, ‘Warren, I just love your music.’
“So for 22 years, I have taken care of the guitar. This is the guitar right here,” he said, gesturing to a light blue guitar on a stand next to him. “This is the guitar, and by God, um, tonight it’s going back to work,” Letterman added, handing it to Killers’ guitarist Dave Keunig to play in the Zevon song soon to follow.
“Enjoy every sandwich,” Letterman finished, quoting Zevon’s answer on that final show when Letterman asked him if the approach of death had altered his perspective on life.
Backstage banter
Heart’s Nancy Wilson stopped by the media room before the show started to talk about how she felt about the induction of Soundgarden, a Seattle band like her own, and the absence of the Cornell, who’d inducted Heart into the hall in 2013.
“I felt like it was about time,” Wilson said. “But I mean, they’re a true rock band and Chris was a true friend and a brother in our Seattle family
“And you know, it’s rock,” she added. “Rock and roll is almost a lost art. The rock bands, the real rock bands, like my band Heart, Bad Company, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam. There’s not that many roaming the planet anymore. So I’m really happy to see the new ones coming up, but still to honor the ones of us that are still leaving the big dinosaur footprints behind us.”
Simon Kirke of Bad Company also dropped by after picking up his Rock Hall trophy. He’d grown emotional during his acceptance speech in mentioning the absences of the late guitarist Mick Ralphs and late bassist Boz Burrell.
“When death takes a friend it never really dies, it never really fades away,” he said. “I’m just glad that Mick Ralphs [who died in June] was able to hear that we were inducted before he passed away.
“Paul called him and said, ‘Hey, mate, we got in, we got in,’” Kirke said. “And Mick said, ‘Does that mean we get free hotdogs?’ I guess it was the morphine talking. He went out with a smile.”
Toni Cornell, who at 21 very much resembles her late father, talked about her dad and her song in the show.
“It’s so surreal and I’m so honored I get to be here and do this for my dad,” she said. “At the end of the day i just wish he could have been here to see this honor for himself. He’s he reason I do what I do.”
As for the song, it’s an arrangement she remembered from Cornell’s acoustic tour in which he stripped down Soundgarden’s booming rock to a more delicate sound that included strings and acoustic guitars.
“I remember him doing his versions of these super powerful Soundgarden songs,” Toni Cornell said. “Eventually he did it it with a cellist and I just loved that arrangement.”
As for the song itself, “Fell on Black Days,” she said she feels like everyone can relate to its message.
“We all fall on black days,” Cornell said. “I’ve experienced that.”
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