Last night heavy metal pioneers Metallica were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at Public Hall in Cleveland, OH by Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In the run-up to the ceremony both guitarist Kirk Hammett and frontman James Hetfield have consistently mentioned Rush among the bands that they think also deserve to be inducted. They continued this refrain last night during their acceptance speech when James Hetfield gave Rush and other neglected hard rock bands such as Thin Lizzy and Deep Purple a nod. You can watch the video here:

In a pre-show interview Kirk Hammett echoed his choice of Rush as the band that he would choose for induction (thanks Jim):

In a perfect world, I would say Rush. They are one of the most consistent yet overlooked bands around. The amount of power and noise that they create out of just three musicians is really amazing. There's no one like them. Rush is like a combination of a Phillip K. Dick novel and Cream (laughter). When they came out, they were in between Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and us. They are so influential in the rock world. I hope that the people who vote for this stuff get the band in there soon, because they deserve it. If they do get voted in someday, I would be interested in being the person actually inducting them that night (laughter).

Thanks to everyone who emailed me the news. I was away from my computer for the past couple of days, so I couldn't post anything until this evening. For more videos from the induction ceremony check out this post at Blabbermouth.

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