George Michael, Missy Elliott, Willie Nelson lead 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s class of ‘23 will include performers Kate Bush, Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott, George Michael, Willie Nelson, Rage Against the Machine and The Spinners.

DJ Kool Herc and singer Link Wray will be honored with the Rock Hall’s Musical Influence Award, while Chaka Khan, Al Kooper and Bernie Taupin are celebrated with Musical Excellence awards. These include “artists whose music and performance style have directly influenced, inspired, and evolved rock & roll and music impacting youth culture.”

Last but never least, when the Nov. 3 induction ceremony takes place at Barclay’s Center, “Soul Train” host Don Cornelius will be recognized with the Ahmet Ertegun Award. The honor goes to non-performers who have left their mark on the world of music.

Cornelius, who died in 2012, along with Michael, who died in 2016, and pioneering guitarist Wray, who died in 2005, are the inductees being remembered posthumously in the Rock Hall’s 38th annual inauguration.

“This year’s incredible group of inductees reflects the diverse artists and sounds that define rock & roll,” said Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation chairman John Sykes in a statement.

Crow, Elliott, Michael, and Nelson — who celebrated his 90th birthday over the weekend — were on the ballot for the first time this year. It took five nominations to finally get hard-rocking Rage Against the Machine enshrined.

“Always the bridesmaid, never the bride, in a way,” the band’s guitarist Tom Morello joked in a February interview on the podcast “Audacity Check-In.”

This was the first year of eligibility for Elliott. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame requires artists to have released their first record 25 years prior to induction.

Nominees who didn’t make this year’s final cut include A Tribe Called Quest, Cyndi Lauper, The White Stripes and Iron Maiden, who have been eligible since 2004. Iron Maiden’s lead singer, British-born Bruce Dickinson, claims the Rock Hall is “run by a bunch of sanctimonious bloody Americans who wouldn’t know rock ‘n’ roll if it hit them in the face” and said in 2018 he wouldn’t accept its nomination.