For the most part, this year’s rock class is decidedly not rock, with only Rage Against The Machine being of the rock/metal variety among the Hall’s inductees. 

Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider thinks he has the solution for all the uproar, and it’s as simple as a name change. 

“The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame could have saved themselves a lot of problems by simply calling themselves the ‘Music Hall Of Fame,’” Snider told On The Road To Rock. 

“I lived on Long Island, and there’s a Long Island Music Hall Of Fame, and in there is Arlo Guthrie and Neil Diamond and Twisted Sister and Zebra is in there and Public Enemy’s in there and KISS is in there, because it’s music. The minute you put that word on it, everybody’s, like, ‘Okay, I get it. It’s the Music Hall Of Fame. And these are great musicians.’” 

“So by calling it the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, it positions itself to criticism, and the people who run that thing, it’s still Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone and Meg Griffin from WNEW in New York City, the hip radio station from the ’70s and ’60s. NEW has been off the air for decades… These are the people who are the panel, the voting panel of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. So these old mothereffers are picking the stuff that they grew up with — they’re old. Of course they’re picking… And the minute they go and die — the sooner, the better, guys and girls; the sooner, the better — and they bring in some contemporary people… Again, they’ll either vote to change their name or they’ll just start acknowledging bands.”

“For me, sales do matter,” Snider continued. “Being beloved does matter. The amount of fans you have does matter. And they threw us a bone when they had the fans’ choice. This way they can say, ‘We didn’t pick KISS. We didn’t pick Judas Priest.’ They’re elitist mothereffers.”

Foreigner, Iron Maiden and Motorhead are perhaps the most glaring omissions from the Hall, but the case can be made for numerous other rock/metal artists that haven’t gone in yet.