Rock Hall CEO Breaks Silence On ‘Music Hall of Fame’ and Iron Maiden Criticisms

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame CEO and president Greg Harris has broken his silence about the recent criticisms about Iron Maiden and responded to people who believe that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame should change its name to Music Hall of Fame.

As you remember, it was announced on May 12 that Foo Fighters, Jay-Z, Tina Turner, and more were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame while one of the greatest heavy metal bands, Iron Maiden, failed. Later Maiden‘s fail, rock musicians and fans criticized the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame harshly by saying that they should change their name to Music Hall of Fame.

Recently, the Rock Hall CEO made an appearance on WBAB radio to respond to the criticizes and answered if he believes Iron Maiden is worthy of being inducted into the Rock Hall.

“There’s no doubt that are an impactful, influential band, and that’s why they were nominated this year, along with 15 other artists and acts, and when the votes came in, these six were the leaders,” he said. “So we’re not questioning, are they an important band, are they impactful and influential.

“Of those that have been nominated throughout history, over 80 percent of them have been eventually inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. So everybody has their favorites; everybody has different artists that impacted them or impacted other artists. So, if you look at this list, you can make that case for all of these folks, just like people make that case for Iron Maiden.”

After all, he touched on people who criticized Rock Hall. He denied the criticizes and said that “rock and roll was never just four skinny guys with long hair and guitars.”

“I think to get to the core of it, people like the stuff that’s closest to them, and I think they need to expand their thinking of rock and roll,” he continued. “It’s a big tent.

“Rock and roll was never just four skinny guys with long hair and guitars; it’s always been diverse… We take that interpretation that these are all variants of rock and roll. And I think, underneath it, it frequently gets to the hip-hop question because some people are not fans.

“Well, the fact of the matter is that ship has sailed. We’ve inducted quite a few artists in that canon. It’s a big tent and everybody fits under it. It’s an attitude, it’s a spirit, and that’s rock and roll.”