Green Day Enters Hall of Fame in 1st Possible Year

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced the artists to be inducted next year at the April 18 ceremony in Cleveland, and Rolling Stone has reactions from most of them:

• Green Day: "I had to go for a walk when I heard the news," says frontman Billie Joe Armstrong; the band is being inducted in its first year of eligibility, just like Nirvana. "We're in incredible company and I'm still trying to make sense of this. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has always held something special for me because my heroes were in there."
• Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: Vaughan will be honored posthumously. "With Stevie's passing, our only hope was that maybe other people would enjoy [the music] as much as we did and would hopefully find some kind of meaning ... for themselves," says the group's drummer, Chris Layton. "The induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is sort of evidence of that."

• Joan Jett and the Blackhearts: "It's surreal and very humbling," Jett says. "I've always been hopeful [that I'd get in] because I think it's an incredible acknowledgment. I'm very proud to be with all these great musicians. It's going to take a few minutes to sink in before I see how I really feel about it."
• Bill Withers: "I never thought it was some kind of entitlement or something. I just never felt that anyone owed me this. It's something that's nice that happened. I guess I'll have to go buy a suit."

Lou Reed, who has already been inducted as a member of Velvet Underground, is also being inducted, this time posthumously for his solo work; the last inductee is the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. In addition, Ringo Starr will receive the Award for Musical Excellence, and the "5" Royales, a 1950s R&B group, will receive the Early Influence Award. Starr is already in the Hall of Fame as part of the Beatles, but the other three Beatles have already been inducted as solo artists. "This means recognition to me," he says. "And it means, finally, the four of us are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame even though we were the biggest pop group in the land, though now it all looks funny in black and white." (More Rock and Roll Hall of Fame stories.)