NEW YORK — Blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, punk trio Green Day, poet of the New York underground Lou Reed and “Lean on Me” singer Bill Withers lead a new class of inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year.
The Cleveland hall also welcomed Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, who famously sang about loving rock ‘n’ roll, and Ringo Starr, the fourth ex-Beatle enshrined as an individual. The class includes posthumous inductees Paul Butterfield, Reed and Vaughan.
Vaughan was a 1980s prodigy for his work on songs like “Pride and Joy” and “Texas Flood.” He died in a 1990 helicopter crash.
It is Green Day’s first year of eligibility. They hit a peak with the politically themed concept disc “American Idiot” in 2004.
Reed, who died in October 2013, explored the underside of his home city in the hit “Walk on the Wild Side” and fierce crack-era album “New York.”
Withers brought a jazz and funk touch to hits like “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Use Me” and “Just the Two of Us.” The Paul Butterfield Blues Band married blues and rock during the 1960s.
