UPDATE - 12/17@5:00PM: There's a small Rush mention in this Rolling Stone interview with KISS frontman Gene Simmons where he discusses the band's induction. The interviewer mentions how Rush give KISS a lot of credit for bringing them to a bigger audience and Gene says:

Well, to take a Canadian band on their first tour in America was like, "Who?" But as soon as I heard "Working Man" and heard Geddy [Lee] sing. I was like, "What the hell? This is like a Canadian Led Zeppelin!"

----- snip -----

UPDATE - 12/17@10:34AM: The Rock Hall announced the inductees this morning and unfortunately both Yes and Deep Purple were excluded. However, KISS, Nirvana and Peter Gabriel will be inducted.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is expected to announce their list of inductees for 2014 this coming week. Rush was of course inducted earlier this year, so Rush fans finally won't have anything to complain about when the inductees are revealed this time around. Rush's induction may have helped open the doors for other progressive rock acts as prog-rock pioneers and one of Rush's biggest influences - Yes - is one of the artists nominated this year. Yes bassist Chris Squire was recently interviewed for K-Earth 101 (thanks Pierre K) and was asked about the Rock Hall nomination and who he'd like to have give the induction speech if they were ultimately inducted:

I haven't given it much thought, maybe those Rush guys who got in last year! I'm pretty good friends with Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins (of the Foo Fighters) and they did a great speech for Rush... so probably not them, since they just did one. But if you know Geddy (Lee), let him know that that would be fine by me. I don't know how these things work, though, I don't know how much control we have, how much control the voting committee has, and of course we're still kind of wondering how many members of Yes would be inducted.

Other rock acts on this year's list of prospective inductees include Deep Purple, KISS and Nirvana. These acts along with Yes all have many connections to Rush. Deep Purple and Yes have all been cited by Rush as being huge influences on the band. As early touring mates, Rush and KISS developed a deep friendship and respect for each other, despite playing very different styles of music. Both Deep Purple and KISS have been on the ballot in the past but never chosen for induction. Nirvana only became eligible this year and will almost certainly be selected for induction. As Squire mentions in his interview, Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl along with his Foo Fighters bandmate Taylor Hawkins inducted Rush in last year's ceremony, and Rush are all huge fans of Grohl's work with both the Foo Fighters and Nirvana. As 2013 inductees, the members of Rush were eligible to vote for the 5 nominees that they think are most deserving of induction in 2014, and both Geddy and Alex have already mentioned having submitted their ballots and voted for these artists in recent interviews. For the 2nd year in a row, the Rock Hall posted an online poll where fans can choose their top 5 nominees; Rush won last year's poll with over one quarter of the vote. The top 5 winners of this poll will get counted as one fan ballot vote in the final tally and KISS, Nirvana, Deep Purple and Yes all made the cut. The Future Rock Legends website has made their predictions for the 2014 class as well, and Yes makes their list along with KISS and Nirvana, but they think that Deep Purple will likely get snubbed again.

NOTE: Posts over 10 years old are partially archived. All comments, images and other embedded media have been removed.