OutKast, Cyndi Lauper, The White Stripes Lead 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductees

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has revealed its 2025 class of inductees, and it’s one of the most diverse and genre-span­ning line­ups in recent mem­o­ry. Among the head­line names are leg­endary hip-hop duo Out­Kast, pop icon Cyn­di Lau­per, and alter­na­tive rock trail­blaz­ers The White Stripes.

The announce­ment was made live on Amer­i­can Idol dur­ing a Hall of Fame-themed episode host­ed by Ryan Seacrest, with per­for­mances from the Top 14 final­ists hon­or­ing music leg­ends of the past.

Performer Category: A Genre-Bending Class

The Per­former Cat­e­go­ry this year fea­tures a pow­er­ful mix of inno­va­tors and influ­encers:

• Out­Kast – The Atlanta-based duo behind hits like Hey Ya! and Ms. Jack­son, known for redefin­ing hip-hop with genre fusion and bold cre­ativ­i­ty.
• Cyn­di Lau­per – The ‘80s pop queen whose anthems like Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Time After Time con­tin­ue to inspire new gen­er­a­tions.
• The White Stripes – Jack and Meg White’s min­i­mal­ist garage rock sound shaped the 2000s indie scene with hits like Sev­en Nation Army.
• Bad Com­pa­ny – The British rock super­group known for their bluesy, hard rock sta­ples like Feel Like Makin’ Love and Bad Com­pa­ny.
• Chub­by Check­er – The man who brought The Twist to dance floors every­where, trans­form­ing Amer­i­can pop cul­ture.
• Joe Cock­er – Known for his grit­ty voice and pas­sion­ate inter­pre­ta­tions of songs like With a Lit­tle Help from My Friends.
• Soundgar­den – One of the pio­neers of grunge, front­ed by the late Chris Cor­nell, with hits like Black Hole Sun and Spoon­man.

Special Categories Honor Key Contributors

Sev­er­al artists were also rec­og­nized through com­mit­tee-select­ed awards:

• Musi­cal Influ­ence Award:
  • Salt-N-Pepa, one of the first all-female rap groups to break into the main­stream.
  • War­ren Zevon, the late singer-song­writer behind cult clas­sics like Were­wolves of Lon­don.
• Musi­cal Excel­lence Award:
  • Thom Bell, a key fig­ure in shap­ing the Philadel­phia soul sound.
  • Nicky Hop­kins, a pro­lif­ic ses­sion pianist who played with The Rolling Stones, The Who, and The Bea­t­les.
  • Car­ol Kaye, the leg­endary bassist of the Wreck­ing Crew who con­tributed to count­less clas­sic record­ings.
• Ahmet Erte­gun Award:
  • Lenny Waronker, a sto­ried record pro­duc­er and exec­u­tive who helped shape the careers of artists like Randy New­man and Rick­ie Lee Jones.

A Celebration of Influence

“Each of these inductees cre­at­ed their own sound and atti­tude that had a pro­found impact on cul­ture and helped to change the course of Rock & Roll for­ev­er,” said John Sykes, chair­man of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. “Their music gave a voice to gen­er­a­tions and influ­enced count­less artists that fol­lowed in their foot­steps.”

Induction Ceremony Details

To qual­i­fy for induc­tion, artists must have released their first com­mer­cial record­ing at least 25 years pri­or to the nom­i­na­tion year. Notably, Out­Kast, Chub­by Check­er, Joe Cock­er, and Bad Com­pa­ny were first-time nom­i­nees, while Cyn­di Lau­per, Soundgar­den, and The White Stripes had been pre­vi­ous­ly nom­i­nat­ed.

The 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induc­tion Cer­e­mo­ny will take place Novem­ber 8 at the Pea­cock The­ater in Los Ange­les. It will be streamed live on Dis­ney+, with a spe­cial broad­cast on ABC at a lat­er date and avail­able the fol­low­ing day on Hulu.