Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Highlights
BON JOVI, THE MOODY BLUES, THE CARS, DIRE STRAITS, NINA SIMONE and SISTER ROSETTA THARPE officially became Rock and Roll Hall of Famers on Saturday night.
Howard Stern inducted Bon Jovi, and took some shots at Jann Wenner, the founder of both "Rolling Stone" magazine and the Rock Hall. He said, quote, "Jann required years of pondering to decide if this glorious band that sold over 130 million albums should be inducted. What a tough decision."
JON BON JOVI alluded to that in his acceptance speech, too. He said, quote, "I've been writing this speech many days, in many ways. Some days, it's the thank you speech, some days the [eff] you speech."
Dire Straits didn't have a presenter, so bassist JOHN ILLSLEY did the honors. He also addressed MARK KNOPFLER'sabsence, saying, quote, "I can assure you, it's just a personal thing. It's for personal reasons, let's just leave it at that."
The Cars were inducted by Brandon Flowers from The Killers. And RIC OCASEK paid tribute to singer and bassist BENJAMIN ORR, who died in 2000. He said, quote, "He would've been elated to be here on this stage. It still feels strange to be up here without him."
Ann Wilson from Heart inducted the Moody Blues, and called them, quote, "a kick-ass rock 'n' roll band."
The Rock Hall did a new thing this year. They inducted six SONGS that helped shape rock and roll, including "Louie Louie", "The Twist", "A Whiter Shade of Pale", and "Born to Be Wild".
There was also a tribute to TOM PETTY by the Killers . . . and Ann Wilson teamed up with Jerry Cantrell from Alice in Chainsto sing "Black Hole Sun" in honor of CHRIS CORNELL.