LOS ANGELES (AP) — Phil Collins gave a tearful acceptance speech and got an electrifying tribute from Cynthia Erivo, Oprah Winfrey inducted the late Luther Vandross and U2 was the surprise opener of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday night.
MC Lyte and Sade were also inducted, and Billy Idol, Queen Latifah, New Order, Oasis and Iron Maiden
were set to enter the hall later in the evening.Collins, whose mobility issues and other
health problems kept him from performing, took the stage slowly using a pair of canes and cried at a huge ovation from a crowd that included his daughter, actor Lily Collins.
Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker inducted Collins and praised him for his unprecedented dual stardom as a drummer and a hit-making pop singer in the 1980s.
“I grew up just wanting to play the drums,” Collins said. “Everything else has been a really happy accident. I can’t believe, when I look back, how life has gone.”
Barker said Collins' song “In the Air Tonight” gave the world “arguably the most badass drum fill of all time.”
Minutes later, Barker played that fill himself as Erivo gave a slowed-down, epic rendition of the song that brought the crowd to its feet.
Collins was already in the hall as a member of Genesis, but now gets the solo honor.
He hasn’t been able to take the stage since 2022, but assured the crowd that “you haven’t heard the last of me.”
Winfrey, whose presence was unannounced, said with relish that Vandross was “the maestro of the love song” and said he was once correctly named “the top artist that people make looove to.”
Vandross, an R&B singer with a velvet voice, was one of the definitive singers of the 1980s and ’90s. He died in 2005.
“Luther Vandross sang with such passion and soul it could reach something deep inside that you didn’t even know needed to be reached,” Winfrey said.
Usher then took the stage and sang a sultry medley of Vandross hits, including “Here and Now” and “So Amazing.”
U2 played their new single “Silencio” while surrounded by dancers in riot squad gear with helmets and shields, then launched 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.
Oasis, the 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.
Iron Maiden will be on tour in Australia. 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.
Sade also decided to skip the induction. The singer and her band that's named after her were inducted by singer Andra Day and celebrated by singer Sienna Spiro, who sang the group's beloved hit “Smooth Operator.”
But the show will go on, and hip-hop could be the highlight. Wu-Tang Clan will be inducted along with Queen Latifah.
MC Lyte, a trailblazing female rapper starting in the late 1980s, was the first rapper inducted, with hip-hop star Remy Ma doing the honors and calling her “one of the first women in hip-hop to make sure there was room for the rest of us.”
MC Lyte said she was a “B-girl from Brooklyn just looking for my chance to inspire and motivate.” She did not perform at the moment of her induction but may be part of an ensemble later in the evening.
Latifah and Lyte enter the hall as recipients of the Early Influence Award along with posthumous nominees Gram Parsons, Fela Kuti and Celia Cruz.
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. After streaming the ceremony live the past few years, the Rock Hall returned to its previous model, where the public won’t see it until an edited version airs on ABC and Disney+ on Dec. 9.
