Tom Morello is imploring the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to induct one of its biggest holdouts: Iron Maiden.
The Rage Against the Machine guitarist has long advocated for hard rock and metal — subgenres routinely overlooked by the Rock Hall — and he previously inducted Randy Rhoads in 2021 and Kiss in 2014. (His own band was inducted by Ice-T in 2023.) Now, Morello is setting his sights on the British metal titans, who have been eligible since 2005 and were nominated in 2021 and 2023.
“Mother-flippin’ Maiden, dude! That’s been on the top of my list for a while,” Morello told the Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz podcast. “I feel very, very fortunate that they let me into that — I’m not sure how fortunate they feel — but I feel very fortunate that they let me into that room to make my case for the Randy Rhoadses and the Kisses and the Stevie Ray Vaughans, Rush, Judas Priest and MC5 — but Maiden’s next.”
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Iron Maiden Leads Current Rock Hall Fan Vote
Morello is far from alone in his crusade get Iron Maiden into the Rock Hall. As of this week, the band topped the leaderboard at the Hall’s in-person “Voice Your Choice” voting kiosk, besting Blink-182, Styx, “Weird Al” Yankovic and Motley Crue.
One person who’s less excited about the prospect of Iron Maiden’s Rock Hall induction is the band’s own singer, Bruce Dickinson. The frontman previously called the Rock Hall “an utter and complete load of bollocks” that is “run by a bunch of sanctimonious bloody Americans who wouldn’t know rock ‘n’ roll if it hit them in the face.” He claimed he was “really happy we’re not there and I would never want to be there. If we’re ever inducted, I will refuse — they won’t bloody be having my corpse in there.”
“Rock ‘n’ roll music does not belong in a mausoleum in Cleveland,” Dickinson continued. “It’s a living, breathing thing, and if you put it in a museum, then it’s dead. It’s worse than horrible, it’s vulgar.”
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Gallery Credit: Bryan Rolli
