LOS ANGELES (AP) — U2 was the surprise opener of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday night, playing their new single “Silencio” while surrounded by dancers in riot squad gear with
helmets and shields, then launching into their 1984 classic “Pride (In the Name of Love).”
Singer Bono alternately raised a peace sign and fist as guitarist the Edge and the rest of the band played the song about Martin Luther King, Jr. on the stage at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. U2 was inducted into the hall in 2005.
It was an apt opening for what may feel like '80s night, with the new members including Billy Idol, Phil Collins, Sade, Queen Latifah, New Order, Luther Vandross and Iron Maiden.
Many of the inductees opted out of performing or appearing, and the Hall of Fame revealed next-to-nothing about the show, so it's likely to be full of similar surprises.
After streaming the ceremony live the past few years, the Rock Hall is returning to its previous model, where the public won’t see it until an edited version airs on ABC and Disney+ on Dec. 9.
Here's what we do know about the show:
Oasis, youngest of the inductees, won’t be coming. Guitarist Noel Gallagher is playing a gig back home in Britain, and his little brother, Liam Gallagher, just doesn't want to come.
“It’s too far to be going for the night,” he said in a post on the social platform X. He added in another, “I dont like award ceremonies they freak me out I dont know why I just get weird vibes."
Iron Maiden will be on tour in Australia. Sade is opting to sit it out, too. Collins is likely to appear, but he said he cannot play his songs due to health reasons. Key members of New Order, getting a joint induction with their previous incarnation Joy Division, will also be out for health reasons. Vandross died in 2005.
But the show will go on, and hip-hop could be the highlight. Wu-Tang Clan will be inducted along with Queen Latifah and MC Lyte, and all are expected to appear and probably perform.
And Idol, being inducted with his longtime guitarist Steve Stevens, will take the stage ready to rock.
Latifah and Lyte enter the hall as recipients of the Early Influence Award along with posthumous nominees Gram Parsons, Fela Kuti and Celia Cruz.
Parsons, an essential figure at the crossroads of country and rock in the 1960s and '70s, got his own separate tribute Wednesday night at the legendary Troubadour club in West Hollywood, where his duet partner Emmylou Harris along with Rock Hall-of-Famers Elvis Costello and Sheryl Crow sang his songs and saluted his legacy.
Kuti will become the first African-born artist in the hall, and Cruz will become the first member who sang primarily in Spanish.
A group of producers will be inducted via the Musical Excellence Award: Rick Rubin, Linda Creed, Arif Mardin and Jimmy Miller. And TV host Ed Sullivan will get in as the winner of the Ahmet Ertugun award, which goes to nonmusicians who've made rock history.
Many other major stars are likely to appear to induct the new members or to play the absentees' songs in tribute. The past few years, the hall has announced several special guests, though not their roles, the week of the show, but with no live airing this year it has returned to a model of keeping nearly everything secret until it happens.
The show is in Los Angeles for the second straight year, and organizers have said it will be here more often while still rotating to New York and Cleveland, where the actual hall resides.
