The forthcoming Illinois Rock & Roll Museum on Route 66 in Joliet announced its inaugural class Friday night.
They are Chicago, Cheap Trick, Ides of March, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Buckinghams and REO Speedwagon.
Nominees that didn’t make the cut were Styx, Earth Wind & Fire, Smashing Pumpkins, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry, Rufus with Chaka Khan, Dan Fogelberg, Eddie Vedder, John Prine, Lionel Ritchie, New Colony 6, Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Survivor.
The Hall of Fame act that sticks out like a sore thumb for its relative lack of worldwide fame is Ides of March, which had only one hit, “Vehicle,” in 1970. The band essentially broke up in 1973, reunited in 1990 and has been active in the Chicago area ever since.
Those inducted in the non-performer categories were WLS radio, Chess Records, the Thirsty Whale nightclub and disc jockey Larry Lujack. The Founder’s Lifetime Achievement Award will go to disc jockey Dick Biondi.
Museum members voted on the Hall of Fame inductees. The Joliet Patch reported members hailed from as far away as Washington state, California, Florida, Texas, Kentucky, Ohio and Colorado.
The Illinois Rock & Roll Museum on Route 66 will hold its first induction class on March 29 at the Renaissance Center Ballroom in Joliet.
The first floor of the three-story complex at 9 W. Cass St. in Joliet is slated to open by summer or fall. It sits between the northbound and southbound lanes of Illinois 53, aka Route 66.
(Hat tip to Lynn Bagdon; image of a Cheap Trick album by Kenneth Hagemeyer via Flickr)
That is perhaps the strangest list of nominees and inductees to a “Rock and Roll” hall of fame imagineable.
I think the shadows of Knight are a Chicago band hopefully they’ll make it
So what is the criteria for this Hall of Fame? Just R&R in general or some connection to Illinois or Route 66? Just curious.
A connection to Illinois is the main one.
Enter dUg Pinnick of Joliet. Kings X,KXM,Tres Mountains,Grinder Blues, and so much more. My big cousin.