Guns N’ Roses, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Donovan and the Beastie Boys will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
There will be two posthumous inductees, 1960s singer-songwriter Laura Nyro and producer Don Kirshner. Other inductees named for 2012 included the British group The Small Faces/The Faces, Freddie King, Cosimo Matassa, Tom Dowd and Glyn Johns.
The induction ceremony will take place in Cleveland on April 14.
The big names in this year’s class are Guns N’ Roses, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Beastie Boys. All three acts rose to fame in the 1980s.
The Beastie Boys brought a combination of metal and rap to the mainstream, launching their career with the smash ‘You gotta fight for your right to party’. The trio would go on to critical and commercial success.
Guns N’ Roses – or GNR – would break out as superstars with the album ‘Appetite for Destruction’. Behind the powerful vocals of Axel Rose, and singles like ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ and ‘Sweet Child of Mine’, the band would be second to none in popularity. While the lineup of GNR has changed over the years, the presence of Axel Rose has been the one constant.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers emerged from the 80s California scene, combining everything from metal, punk, ska, reggae, funk and pop for a unique and enduring blend of rock and roll.