Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Ceremony Gets Fired Up With Live-Wire Numbers From U2, the Chili Peppers, Usher, Cynthia Erivo, Sienna Spiro, Aerosmith and More

You could feel it in the air that night, at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, held Saturday at L.A. Peacock Theatre and filmed for a December ABC special. The show’s producers would relish, as always, the thought of having younger artists salute their elders, or bringing together some powerhouse teamings, coming up with admirably savvy ideas to make sure most of the honorees got their interesting due, regardless of whether they’d survived to make it to this point or felt it was worth the trip if they had.

To wit: Cynthia Erivo and Travis Barker joining forces as a duo truly no one saw coming for a salute to the ailing Phil Collins. Usher channeling the late Luther Vandross. St. Vincent and an all-star metal crew, including Metallica members, rocking out in honor of the absent Iron Maiden. Sienna Spiro bringing the breeziness for the also-absent Sade. Country-rock upstart Stephen Wilson Jr. honoring the most notorious no-shows of the evening, Oasis with an unexpectedly swampy approach to Britpop revivalism.

And then there was superproducer Rick Rubin, who got a big spotlight as an inductee but was obviously not about to perform, so showrunners came up with a novel pairing in his honor, matching the Red Hot Chili Peppers with… Rubin’s beard. Each of the RHCP members had lifelike facsimiles of Rubin’s flowing hirsuteness, with the fake beards glued on well enough to withstand a lot of headbanging, looking like a small army of prowling Zen masters.

That is not to neglect the inductees who were able to salute themselves — primarily, the hip-hop wing of the class of 2026: Queen Latifah, MC Lyte and Wu Tang Clan. Billy Idol was also present and accounted for in an climactic segment that saw him joined by one of his presenters, Gwen Stefani, as well as longtime cohort Steve Stevens. And there was a hybrid approach for the Joy Division/New Order performance homage, as members of the Deftones and Chvrches joined the one band representative on hand, Peter Hook to sub in for the band members from whom he is deeply estranged and/or are known to be ill.

And, to bookend the four-and-a-half-hour proceedings, the Hall booked two acts — or three — who had no direct tie to this year’s proceedings but are always worth a tribute, self-honoring or otherwise: U2 opened the show with two numbers, one old and one hot off the presses. And Aerosmith and Run-DMC closed it with a reprise of the “Walk This Way” reunion that just two weeks ago closed an Aerosmith comeback at the Hollywood Bowl.

The U2 kickoff came as a surprise… or at least a surprise to anyone who hadn’t spent much time thinking about how much promotional activity the group was already putting in in the past week to set up the release of their first full new album in nine years, “Carnaval de Luz.” The newly re-intact foursome, with drummer Larry Mullen Jr. back in the lineup, performed the new release’s “Silencio” while flanked by men dressed as policemen holding riot shields, who mostly stood in witness to the fresh track before suddenly and alarmingly running laps around the band. Somewhat soothingly, the intimidating lawmen disappeared as the band segued into the familiar sounds of “Pride (In the Name of Love).”

The first honoree, MC Lyte, who got in under the auspices of the Early Influence category, was inducted by Remy Ma, and in her own speech described herself as a “B-girl from Brooklyn looking for my chance to inspire and motivate a generation of people.” She did not perform, at the time, but it turned out her live rapping turn would come later, in tandem with Queen Latifah’s.

Oprah Winfrey was the designated sharer of the love for the late Luther Vandross, with, among the extolled values, the contention that “Luther never once over-sang a feeling.” Following her to channel Vandross, Usher performed a medley of “Here and Now,” “So Amazing” and (a title that seemed to echo Oprah’s comments about not oversinging) “Never Too Much.”

Phil Collins, whose debilitations in recent years have long been a matter of public record, took the stage with a cane and proclaimed, half in jest, that his condition is “really not as bad as it looks.” He also made a claim that “you haven’t heard the last of me,” before Erivo and Barker made sure that the drum fill from “In the Air Tonight” got a proper airing, even as the “Wicked” star went a prodigiously long way toward reminding the world that the song has a melody, too, as well as being eternal air-drum bait.

Collins made a trip back to the press room at the Peacock, with few-holds-barred talk about what has been afflicting him and prospects for any musical future following his long break. “In terms of playing live, I think my drumming days are probably done,” he told the assembled press, stating what may be the obvious. “I had a really bad knee, left knee, that I had five operations on — It was replaced five times, and that meant I was in hospital for quite a while. Then my kidneys started failing and liver started failing. Everything started to go wrong, so at one point, I didn’t think I’d live, let alone go on the road again. “

Collins continued, “But just the other night, I was talking to the kids about it, and everyone got excited, including myself, that it’s not beyond the realms of possibility of doing some shows. You know, I’ve got some great friends of mine that are great musicians that have been in my band, and I’d like to get down to my studio just to sort of have some fun, and write some music that I hope will be good enough for people to hear and enjoy. So it’s a work in progress.”

Presenter Chris Rock said that the Wu-Tang Clan “didn’t leave Staten Island, they took it with them.” Tje collective’s extended membership filled a significant portion of the stage, so it wasn’t surprising when producers finally cut the mics just as another member was stepping up to speak. Inspectah Deck got most of the talking in, exclaiming, “I partied with Billy Idol,” then getting serious by saying, “Of course, we had our talent, but we had a village, so I want to take a moment to thank some of those people from our village.” He then ran through the names of 40 individuals or organizations, none of which will be included on the ABC broadcast, if it surely did make for a lot of returned gratitude in the room. The group was the first artist of the night to perform on their own behalf, with a seven-song medley that began with “Triumph” and climaxed with “Protect Ya Neck.”

None of the members of Sade, the band, made it to the ceremony, including their same-named frontwoman, but that segment had all the starpower it needed with a performance of “Smooth Operator” by Sienna Spiro, whom many consider the frontrunner to win the best new artist Grammy about 300 feet away in three months.

Neither was there any sign of Oasis, with Noel Gallagher reportedly having booked a side gig for the night as an excuse to be antisocial, and Liam, who has frequently badmouthed the Hall, not needing any such excuse. Presenter Bob Odenkirk talked about how he would play Oasis to get in the mood for her role as Saul Goodman, calling the band “a dose of Viagra for the ego.” Country star Wilson did “Wonderwall” as a solo artist, with the show producers presumably hoping for a wave of viewer approval for his unusual take that would be similar to the massive kudos he got for singing a similarly stripped-down “Stand by Me” on the CMAs last year.

The most hilarious immediate juxtaposition of the night? That would be Neil Young, offering a 14-minute speech in support of his friend Rick Rubin, followed by the superstar producer coming out and giving the shortest speech in Rock Hall history: “You can’t kill rock ‘n’ roll.”

Young’s speech — again, only a tiny sliver of which is likely to make it to the TV special — consisted mostly of two recurring themes: (1) A list of the great artists Rubin has produced, by decade (though he left out Jay-Z), including an explanation of the Chicks having changed their name. (2) Thank-yous not just to producers and engineers but to the other helpers who purportedly stand guard in studio parking lots, to make sure label executives and other bean-counters are not allowed in to disturb the creative vibes.

Then the Chili Peppers did “Give It Away,” getting a fresh start on it after an initial technical snafu, each and every member with a long, gray, fake beard that must have tickled all their bare chests. (Drummer Chad Smith did not get to take the rest of the night off at that point, as he returned at the very end as Aerosmith’s fill-in drummer of the moment.)

Peter Hook appeared very happy to be on hand as the sole representative of one of the most fractured and ongoingly fractious bands in all of rock, New Order. “I’ve been happy, I’ve been mad and I’ve been heartbroken in equal measure,” Hook said — feelings that anyone who has read his entertainingly forthright interviews well knows — “but I’m still fucking here.” He talked about long-gone founder Ian Curtis — “The last letter I had was from him, he said, ‘I’m swirling down into a dark void’” — and talked about going into the chrysalis that became the spinoff band: “We went to New York and we were introduced to American club life. It was an exciting, brand new world. We started experimenting with electronic beats and with sequence lines and synthesizers, and that became a new direction for New Order. … ‘Blue Monday’ sounds like it was recorded yesterday. It still sounds like the future.” Then he took to center stage to share it with Deftones and Chvches’ Lauren Mayberry on a song for each of his newly inducted bands, Joy Division’s signature song “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle.”

Presenting to the bands generally, and to Hook specifically, was Trent Reznor, who said that in the punk era Joy Division differed by “level(ing) their gaze at the physical and emotional scars caused by the worst events of the 20th century, reflected in the industrial landscape they called home and posed the question: What chance does love have of surviving in a place like this?” The Nine Inch Nails auteur spoke of Curtis as “one of popular music’s all-time great baritone singers. But being possessed of great sensitivity, his voice was pushed to the point where it often felt like it might break apart and descend.” After his suicide, said Reznor, the lineup that was redubbed New Order “took what had been previously breathtakingly monochrome and via the introduction of electronics rendered it in vivid color. And for the 45 years since, they’ve dedicated themselves joyfully to the conundrum of combining rock and dance, creating a blueprint for radical euphoria along the way.” (Although Hook might have had a rejoinder to that about whether the half-century was all joyful.)

“I must have watched Jonathan Demme’s video for ‘The Perfect Kiss’ a thousand times,” Hook continued. “It feels to me like I’m getting to live this dream In that film, I see a curiosity, naivety, and a sense of utter conviction that always leaves me wanting to try to be fearless and try something new, to ignore the rules and reconsider what’s possible.”

Queen Latifah said that her initial music was “mostly beats and rhymes. But I had songs in my heart. I loved reggae music. I loved salsa. Shout out to Señora Cruz” — Celia Cruz, that is, who was being posthumously inducted this year. “I loved reggae. I loved house music. I loved jazz, and I wanted to put all of that, and rock, into my hip-hop.” Acknowledging the rarity of women in the genre, she said, “Thank you to my sisters in the name of hip-hop. If it wasn’t for (MC) Lyte, I don’t know if I would’ve known this was really possible, but when I heard Lyte rap, I was like, ‘Yo, what is that? I wanna do that.’” In conclusion, she wanted to “leave you with a quote from Maya Angelou, who said, ‘Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.’”

Latifah, who has been widely seen and heard from in recent years as an actress and singer, did her part to take breath away with a spirited return to her roots in the performance segment that followed, where she performed “U.N.I.T.Y.,” “Latifah’s Had It Up 2 Here” and — joined by MC Lyte, presenter Meghan Thee Stallion and Remy Ma — a quartet-powered “Ladies First.”

Not surprisingly, the final acceptance speech and final performance slot for an actual nominee was reserved for Idol, who has been arguably the most enthusiastic of anyone about his induction. He was introduced by No Doubt’s Stefani and Tony Kanal, with Stefani getting personal as she recalled “in ’84 taking the bus to Huntington Beachm and everybody had a boom box, and everybody at the entire beach was listening to ‘Eyes Without a Face.’ And it was pure euphoria. I didn’t know what the song meant, but it didn’t matter because it was weirdly hopeful, crazy, and dreamy and the feelings that I needed to have as a teenager. And then we saw him on MTV. The spiked hair, the leather jackets, the fingerless gloves, and the signature lip curl made him visually unforgettable. He was handsome. He was stylish. He was crazy-sexy and perfectly rebellious.”

Steve Stevens gave an initial thank-you speech, followed by Idol offering recollections going all the way back to his Generation X Brit-punk days. He offered encouragement “to all the young people out there who can barely tune a guitar or work a sampler: now it’s your turn. Go make the impossible possible. Find out who you are and be it. Dream, baby, dream. Keep your dreams burning forever. And now I’m gonna party with the Wu Tang Clan!” he exulted, echoing that unit’s earlier expressed enthusiasm about joining Idol’s off-stage party.

The denouement, rather than an all-star jam of the likes that used to end Hall ceremonies, had Aerosmith beginning to play “Walk This Way,” with Tyler interrupting it to say something was missing — Run-DMC, who came out to thereafter do the MTV-familiar version of the track that is dominated by their contribution. It was familiar to anyone who saw the two artists do a combo version of their classic at the second of the two “Aerosmith & Friends” concerts at the Bowl on Nov. 1. As was noted at the time, Tyler sounds in surprisingly good voice for someone whose vocal issues put a halt to touring a few years ago. In celebrating the historic meeting of rock and rap that occurred in the 1980s, the closing number had plenty of symbolic import, with three hip-hop acts having been inducted earlier in the evening.