Rage Against The Machine and Kate Bush respond to Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction

Rage Against The Machine and Kate Bush have responded to the news that they are both part of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame’s Class of 2023.

The list of this year’s inductees was revealed earlier today, with George Michael, Sheryl Crow, rap innovator Missy Elliott, The Spinners, and country legend Willie Nelson also set to join the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

Kate Bush had previously been nominated three times, in 2018, 2021 and 2022. Rage Against The Machine, meanwhile, were on their fifth nomination, having been nominated more times than any of this year’s other shortlisted artists.

“It is a surprising trajectory for us to be welcomed into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” Rage Against the Machine said in a statement. “In 1991 four people in Los Angeles formed a musical group to stand where sound and and solidarity intersect. We called ourselves Rage Against the Machine.”

The group continued: “A band who is as well known for our albums as we are for our fierce opposition to the US war machine, white supremacy and exploitation. A band whose songs drove alternative radio to new heights while right wing media companies tried to purge every song we ever wrote from the airwaves.” Find Rage Against the Machine’s full statement below.

Meanwhile, Bush gave a statement to Rolling Stone. “I have to admit I’m completely shocked at the news of being inducted into the Hall of Fame! It’s something I just never thought would happen. Thank you so much to everyone who voted for me. It means a great deal that you would think of me. It’s such a huge honour.”

Bush also suggested she would attend the ceremony, marking her first public appearance for nearly a decade. “Now, as part of the initiation ceremony, I get to find out about the secret handshake… there is one, right?” she joked.

Artists who were nominated, meanwhile, but didn’t make the final cut include Cyndi Lauper, The White Stripes, A Tribe Called Quest and Joy Division/New Order (who were packaged together as one nomination). The 2023 ceremony will be held at the Barclays Center in New York in November.

Earlier this year, Hole frontwoman Courtney Love called for more female acts to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, and highlighted how in previous years, there has been a lack of Black inductees.

“If the Rock Hall is not willing to look at the ways it is replicating the violence of structural racism and sexism that artists face in the music industry, if it cannot properly honour what visionary women artists have created, innovated, revolutionised and contributed to popular music – well, then let it go to hell in a handbag,” she wrote.

Elsewhere, The Pretenders‘ Chrissie Hynde also weighed in her thoughts on diversity within the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, calling it “total bollocks”.

“If anyone wants my position in the rock ‘n’ roll Hall of Fame they are welcome to it. I don’t even wanna be associated with it,” she said. “It’s absolutely nothing to do with rock ‘n’ roll and anyone who thinks it is is a fool.”