Phil Collins, Billy Idol, Oasis join 2026 Rock Hall class

Phil Collins, Billy Idol, Iron Maiden and Oasis are heading into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in a class that stretches the canon beyond guitar bands and into the broader pop culture that now defines rock’s audience.

The 2026 performer class also includes Joy Division/New Order, Sade, Luther Vandross and Wu-Tang Clan, a lineup that makes the Hall’s argument plain: rock history is no longer being written only by hard rock and arena bands. It is being shaped by post-punk, British pop, R&B, hip-hop and artists whose influence has crossed genres for decades. The Hall will hold its induction ceremony on Saturday, November 14, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, and the show will debut on ABC and Disney+ in December, with the American Idol announcement episode available the next day on Hulu and Disney+.

The class was unveiled live during a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame-themed American Idol episode by Ryan Seacrest and 2022 inductee Lionel Richie, as the Top 11 finalists performed songs by Hall inductees and America voted live for the Top 9. That television setup fit the Hall’s current strategy: sell the institution as a living, cross-platform brand, not a closed museum of old-school rock purity. The 2026 ballot began with 17 performer nominees and went to more than 1,200 artists, historians and music industry professionals. Eligibility still starts only after an act’s first commercial recording is at least 25 years old.

For Phil Collins, the honor is a second Hall induction after Genesis entered in 2010. Billy Idol is in on his second nomination, while Iron Maiden and Oasis each advanced on their third. Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood thanked the Hall and pointed to the band’s 50th-anniversary celebrations and its Run For Your Lives world tour, a reminder that the institution is still rewarding acts that remain active, visible and commercially durable.

The omissions matter as much as the names that got in. The 2026 field left out The Black Crowes, INXS, Mariah Carey, P!NK, New Edition, Melissa Etheridge, Lauryn Hill, Shakira and Jeff Buckley, underscoring how unsettled the Hall’s boundaries remain. Even as it widens the frame, the institution keeps making choices about whose influence counts as rock and whose does not.

Beyond the performer class, the Hall also elevated Celia Cruz, Fela Kuti, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte and Gram Parsons with Early Influence honors; Linda Creed, Arif Mardin, Jimmy Miller and Rick Rubin with Musical Excellence awards; and Ed Sullivan with the Ahmet Ertegun Award. Taken together, the 2026 class suggests a Hall trying to speak to a streaming-era audience without surrendering the argument over what rock canon should be.