Green Day, Lou Reed, Joan Jett, Ringo Starr Lead 2015 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Green Day | Photo Credit: Felisha Tolentino

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has officially announced next year’s inductees: Lou Reed, Green Day, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Bill Withers and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band will all join the class of 2015. Ringo Starr will be given the Award For Musical Excellence and 1950s R&B group the “5” Royales will receive the Early Influence Award.

The induction ceremony will be held at Cleveland’s Public Hall on April 18th, 2015. Once again, the general public will be allowed to attend. Tickets go on sale this Thursday.

Artists are eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25 years after the release of their first album or single. Green Day, whose debut EP, 1,000 Hours, came out in 1989, are entering the institution in their first year of eligibility. “I had to go for a walk when I heard the news,” says Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong. “We’re in incredible company and I’m still trying to make sense of this. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has always held something special for me because my heroes were in there. This is a great time for us to sort of reflect and look back with gratitude.”

Starr was inducted as part of The Beatles in 1988, though his three other bandmates have since entered the Hall of Fame as solo artists. “This means recognition to me,” he says. “And it means, finally, the four of us are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame even though we were the biggest pop group in the land, though now it all looks funny in black and white.”

He might even agree to a rare performance on the evening, but at the moment he’s far from sure about that. “There are some people that can sing in their later years and some of them that can’t,” he says. “I don’t want to be on of those old guys that sounds like a gerbil trying to give birth to a hippopotamus. I’ve gotta see if I can’t conjure it up.”

Whether or not that happens, one of Jett’s signature songs would also sum up the evening quite nicely. “Playing ‘I Love Rock and Roll’ would be a lot of fun,” she says. “It would speak to what a lot of us have dedicated our lives to, this music called rock & roll. I think it would be appropriate. I’ve always sort of kept that song away, but I think in this instance it would be a perfect instance to whip it out and have people do it.”