Bruce Dickinson was very blunt about why he doesn’t want Iron Maiden to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
The Maiden frontman told The Telegraph, “I don’t want to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! Because we’re not dead yet! Some people feel almost actively threatened by metal. Not by the nature of the music. But by the fact that it doesn’t conform to their worldview of what pop music should be, which is: pop music is disposable, darling. Well, we don’t make disposable pop music.”
Iron Maiden, of course, was nominated for the Rock Hall’s 2023 class. It was the metal band’s second nomination after being nominated the first time in 2021. When the 2023 Rock Hall class was announced in May, there was plenty of backlash about Maiden being snubbed again. It was something Rock Hall CEO Greg Harris talked about in an interview following the class announcement.
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Harris said, “We love that people care. That they care if they’re in or out, and that their fans care. The truth is anybody that’s nominated, the odds are good that they’ll eventually gonna get in. In fact, I think it may be as high as 90 percent eventually go in.”
He added, “Rage [Against the Machine], this was their sixth time, I believe, fifth time on the ballot, or sixth time. And so sometimes it takes a while. But let’s see where it lands. Right now, let’s celebrate this year’s class, and we can start to debate about next year’s class once the spotlight is off of this year’s class.”
The lack of metal representation in the Rock Hall remains one of the institution’s biggest criticisms. Since its inaugural class in 1986, the Rock Hall has only inducted four metal acts: Black Sabbath (2006), Metallica (2009), Randy Rhoads (2021) and Judas Priest (2022.) Per the Rock Hall’s inductee search list, there have been 365 total inductees.