From Billboard.com
January 08, 2007, 10:10 AM ET

Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
R.E.M., Van Halen, Patti Smith, the Ronettes and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame March 12 during a ceremony at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. To be eligible for induction, this year's class had to release their first single no later than 1981.

The upcoming event will also pay tribute to late Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun, who served as the chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation.

R.E.M. and Van Halen face the decision of whether to perform at the ceremony with ex-members. R.E.M. reunited with former drummer Bill Berry last fall to celebrate its induction into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and even hit the studio with him to record a track for an as-yet-unreleased charity album.

For Van Halen, the situation is more complex. The group is without a lead singer, although rumors are swirling that original frontman David Lee Roth will tour with the outfit this summer. In addition, Eddie Van Halen's teenage son recently replaced longtime bassist Michael Anthony in the band.

Black Sabbath, the Sex Pistols, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blondie, Miles Davis and record moguls Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss were enshrined in the Hall in 2006.
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I'm surprised Grandmaster Flash got in as I figured Run DMC would be the first rap act inducted. I'm sure R.E.M. will play with Bill Berry , but Van Halen is going to make for one of the most interesting inductions ever. I don't put anything past Eddie VH, but it would be a disgrace if Michael Anthony was not allowed to perform with them that night.

Yeah, no problem for REM. There are no bad feelings toward Bill Berry and they respect his decision. Van Halen will be interesting. Maybe Patti Smythe will be the singer.

I remember when all that was going on...maybe they'll get Cherone to come back!! I'm pretty sure the fact that Anthony is such good friends and performs with Hagar all the time led to his being kicked out and to his likely exclusion.

Van Halen is two very different bands with Roth and Haggar at the helm. It will be interesting to see what happens. Kinda reminds me of when Journey got a star on the Walk of Fame and Steve Perry showed up along with Poser Journey. Except that in Van Halen's case, both guys were entertaining as hell.

still no Alice Cooper

Patty Smyth, from Scandal? Yeah, I've gotten those two mixed up before myself.

Hell, bring out all 3 Vh singers and have a sing-off.

No Stooges? Lame.

Or KISS, or Cheap Trick...damn.

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five in the Rock and Roll Hall of fame? Does this mean next year Slayer will finally get their due and get into the Rap Hall of Fame?

I big for Grandmaster Flash and the boys. Also to R.E.M. and The Ronettes.

def. good putting van halen and REM in there!!!

Hagar Hoping Van Halen Takes High Road At Rock Hall

Van Halen's appearance at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on March 12 "could go a lot of different ways," according to Sammy Hagar. That said, Hagar -- the group's second frontman, from 1985-96 -- tells Billboard.com he has high hopes that the famously combative group will take the high road on that particular night.

"My hope is that everyone lets everything go and we go there in complete respect of each other and in a loving way, with the attitude that 'I couldn't have done it without you' towards everybody," says Hagar, who received the official word of Van Halen's selection at his Cabo Wabo Cantina in Mexico, where he and Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony have spent the past week jamming with Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith in a newly developing side project called Chickenfoot.

But he also notes that, "The biggest fear for me is there'll be animosity and 'I won't talk to that guy' and maybe some harsh words towards each other or some sly remarks in speeches ... and it's not out of the question that that could happen. But in the end, no matter what happens, when you hear the music you're gonna go, 'That's one of the greatest rock'n'roll bands in the world, ever, and well-deserved the inauguration into the Hall of Fame."

Hagar says he hadn't spoken to anyone other than Anthony about the induction but planned to put in a congratulatory call to drummer Alex Van Halen. He expects that manager Irving Azoff "is gonna try to spin everyone together somehow" and says he'll "go with the flow" with induction ceremony plans, which Hagar expects will include a live Van Halen performance.

However, Hagar deemed talk of a Van Halen tour this year with original frontman David Lee Roth and guitarist Eddie Van Halen's 15-year-old son Wolfgang on bass speculative and voiced concern for that particular turn in the band's course.

"Wolfie's a great guy; I love Wolfie. But I don't think Van Halen should bring a 15-year-old kid to replace Sam, Dave and Michael Anthony," Hagar says. "That's a lot of pressure for Wolfie. Just 'cause he's Eddie's son doesn't mean he can go out and play in arenas and perform and entertain an audience for two hours. I would love to see Eddie and Alex get behind Wolfie, with a kid of his age singing, and produce the record for him and help him launch a career. I'd rather see it go that way than come out and say 'Wolfie's the bass player in Van Halen and maybe singing, too.' Van Halen's got way too much history to have that put on him."

R.E.M. Thrilled To Join Patti Smith In Rock Hall

R.E.M.'s joy at being named a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2007 inductee is made all the more special because the group itself is "wretched" at being retrospective, according to frontman Michael Stipe.

"Our strength seems to be looking forward...(to) the next song or the next record or the next video and the next tour and trying to continue doing good and sometimes great work," Stipe told Billboard.com from London, where he, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and manager Bertis Downs were meeting to talk about plans for R.E.M.'s next album. "So it's really an honor that someone took the time to look backward and to kind of recognize what we've done in our past, 'cause we're really crappy at it."

Stipe and Mills both said that R.E.M. was particularly pleased to be in the same class of inductees as Patti Smith, an acknowledged influence on the band who called Stipe today (Jan. 8) to congratulate the band on the Hall of Fame news. "It was really greater to be able to say 'Congratulations to you' back to her," Stipe says. Mills added that, "She's been up (for induction) before and hasn't gotten in. I was afraid that her lack of huge record sales might blind people to her influence."

Stipe and Mills said original drummer Bill Berry, who left R.E.M. in 1997, will be attending the March 12 Hall of Fame ceremony in New York, but the group hasn't decided what songs it will play and who will induct it.

The group was also inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in September, where it reunited with Berry and also backed fellow inductee Gregg Allman. At that time, Stipe, Buck, Mills and Berry hit the studio to record a John Lennon cover for a Darfur benefit album, but group members were tight-lipped about when the cut will see the light of day.

Stipe did say R.E.M. plans to hit the studio at the end of the month to "bash out some demos" of eight songs Mills and Buck have written, which he's currently putting lyrics to. The trio is also considering "I'm Gonna DJ," an unreleased song from the sessions for 2004's "Around the Sun" that they played last night in Oxford, England, with Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3, which features Buck and R.E.M. drummer Bill Rieflin.

"The songs that we're working on now will probably be at least some of the songs on the record," Mills says. "We're just basically gearing up for the whole thing."

Stipe adds that he's "excited about whatever direction we're gonna take. I can't really tell you what it's going to sound like, but I'm expecting it will sound like R.E.M. in 2007 -- whatever that is."

Let's see - Van Halen gets in. Very deserved.

Who discovered Van Halen and financed & produced their first demo tape? (The one used to get them a record contract.)

Oh, yeah! Gene Simmons of KISS - an equally (if not more) deserving band that ISN'T in the hall of fame.

(And I have to agree with the comment on Grandmaster Flash - are they going to induct Aerosmith, KISS, or any other rock band that had a rap/rock crossover track into a "Rap Hall of Fame?")

This is just a big sham - a bad joke.

I didn't know that Michael Anthony was no longer in Van Halen.

Last I heard, he hadn't been in contact with either Eddie or Alex while the band was on hiatus.

My two cents:

R.E.M. -- deserve to be in.
Van Halen -- definitely deserve to be in.
Patti Smith -- long overdue. Should have been inducted on her first eligible ballot.
Ronettes -- Meh. Not a travesty, but I can think of worthier bands
Grandmaster Flash -- Should be an inaugural member of the Rap Hall of Fame, but doesn't belong in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Now it's supposed to be 20 years from the 1st record that a band may be eligable.
Van Halens 1st was 1977.
A band this big should have been up in 1997 and Grand Master Flash with one hit song gets in with them.

It's 25.

There's only so many bands each year and there are always weirdos that get in. That's the way it is.

I don't understand all the animosity, personally. I dig R.E.M., The Ronettes, Van Halen, Patti Smith and Grand Master Flash. Admittedly though, I'd have to say I like R.E.M. more than any of the others.

R.E.M. is easily the class of the bunch.

There body of work BEFORE "Losing my Religion" made them mega-stars was good enough for induction and they managed to make the classic "Automatic For The People", the under-rated "Monster", and the terrific "New Adventures in Hi-Fi" before finally starting to make albums that I haven't been crazy about.

I still remember what a big topic of discussion it was among my other 13 year old friends when Rolling Stone gave them album of the year over "Thriller."