Def Leppard, Stevie Nicks Close on Rock Hall Fan Vote Victory
Def Leppard and Stevie Nicks looked to have secured the fan vote for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2019, with five days to go until the public ballot closes.
More than 3 million votes have been cast since polling opened in October, when the two most popular artists took early leads from the 13 other contenders.
Def Leppard had secured more than 504,000 votes at the time of writing, with Nicks in second place with nearly 400,000. Todd Rundgen followed with more than 333,000; the Zombies had nearly 300,000 and the Cure were fifth with around 245,000.
Janet Jackson, Devo, Roxy Music, Rage Against the Machine, Radiohead, John Prine and LL Cool J all sat between 100,000 and 200,000 votes, while at the low end, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, Kraftwerk and MC5 had less than 100,000 votes each.
Fans are allowed to vote once a day every day until 11.59PM ET on Dec. 9. The top five artists will have a fan vote added to the votes submitted in their favor by official associates of the Rock Hall, made up of performers, writers and executives. Since the fan vote began in 2012, all the artists who've won it have gone on to be inducted.
In a recent interview with Loudwire, Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott discussed whom he’d like to see inducted alongside his own band. He named Rundgren for his “very eclectic” body of work and MC5 for their “amazing, quiet influence on what became new wave of punk.”
“Stevie Nicks, from a commercial point of view, [has] had an astonishingly long career in and out of Fleetwood Mac," he said. "You can't deny that she's earned the nomination. And for what’s it’s worth, Kraftwerk are so influential on anything from David Bowie to Depeche Mode to Nine Inch Nails – all those bands. … I think it’s good to look for bands that most of us had never heard of that influenced people we have heard of.”