Rock & Roll Hall of Fame adds Oasis drummer Alan White after backlash

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame did more than tidy up a roster. It corrected a piece of Oasis history that fans and drummers noticed immediately, adding Alan White and Paul McGuigan after the first Class of 2026 announcement left them out and made the band look smaller than it really was.

For drumming readers, White’s omission hit a nerve because he was the long-serving drummer most closely tied to Oasis’ peak-era studio and live run from 1995 to 2004. Leaving him off the first list effectively flattened the band into a story about the Gallagher brothers and a few supporting players, even though White was part of the engine that carried the songs and the tours fans remember most. Tony McCarroll, the original drummer, was included at first, which only sharpened the criticism from people who know the difference between a founder credit and the player who held the chair during the band’s biggest commercial stretch.

The Hall updated its Oasis page so the inductee list now includes eight names: Gem Archer, Paul Arthurs, Andy Bell, Liam Gallagher, Noel Gallagher, Tony McCarroll, Paul McGuigan and Alan White. The change matters because the Hall’s own bio says Oasis sold more than 100 million records, and it also points to the band’s 2025 reunion tour as a giant commercial event, with $400 million in sales and more than two million tickets sold. That is the scale of legacy being sorted here, not a footnote.

The timing also puts the correction in sharper focus. The Hall announced its 2026 inductees on April 13, set the ceremony for Saturday, November 14, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, and said the show will debut on ABC and Disney+ in December. Oasis is being inducted for the third straight year of eligibility, which the Hall says begins once an artist’s first commercial recording is at least 25 years old. The 2026 class includes eight Performer inductees, plus Early Influence, Musical Excellence and Ahmet Ertegun honorees, after a panel of more than 1,200 artists, historians and industry professionals narrowed the field from 17 nominees.

Liam Gallagher’s response underlined how much the institution still means, even with the old grudges intact. He called the honor a “real honour” in an April 14 X post, after mocking the Hall in 2024. For Oasis, this was not just a bookkeeping fix. It was a public acknowledgment that the band’s story was built by the rhythm section as much as the front row, and that Alan White belonged in the history the Hall was trying to write.