Guns N' Roses, the Cure, Red Hot Chili Peppers Nominated for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Slash and Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses perform in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Jim Steinfeldt/Michael Ochs Archives/GettyImages

Nominations for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2012 are in. Guns N’ Roses, the Cure, Heart, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Eric B. and Rakim, the Spinners, the Small Faces/Faces, Freddie King and Rufus with Chaka Khan are all hitting the ballot for the first time, while previous nominees Beastie Boys, Laura Nyro, War, Donna Summer, Donovan and Red Hot Chili Peppers also made the cut. The top vote-getters will be inducted on April 14th, 2012 in Cleveland, Ohio, home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. 

Artists that released their first single or album in 1986 or earlier were eligible for this year's ballot. "The 2012 Nominees embody the broad scope of what ‘rock & roll’ means,” said Joel Peresman, President and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. “From vocal groups to hip-hop, from singer-songwriters to hard rocking artists, this group represents the spirit of what we celebrate at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”

Many bands – including the Talking Heads, Cream, the Police and Led Zeppelin – have put aside longstanding feuds to perform at the Rock and Hall Fall of Fame induction ceremony. If Guns N' Roses are inducted, the group's longtime fans will certainly be hoping for a reunion. "I have no idea how that's supposed to go," Slash said in a 2010 interview when asked about a Hall of Fame reunion. "If Axl, Duff, Izzy and myself start communicating, it could go one way. It we don't, God knows."

In a 2008 fan forum interview, Axl Rose was asked about the possibility of a Guns N' Roses reunion at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "Never thought about that," he wrote. "Not to offend anyone but personally I don’t have an interest and other than inducting Elton don’t quite get what it is exactly and who decides what. It seems to mean more to some than others and more so amongst fans. It’s nice to get recognition and have some form of acceptance but in regards to joining others the price is too high and just not worth it. It’s a ways away and seems a bit presumptuous to be contemplating being inducted now."

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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