The polls have closed for the fan vote for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2018, and Bon Jovi have emerged as the clear winners.
With 1.16 million votes, the veteran New Jersey band left the competition trailing, coming in close to 200,000 votes ahead of runner-ups Moody Blues, and over half a million votes ahead of third-place finishers Dire Straits. So, not quite “100 million Bon Jovi fans” (as the boxset title would have it), but plenty enough!
The other two “winners” of the fan vote (the Hall of Fame gives an extra vote to the top five finishers in the fan vote) were The Cars and Judas Priest, who edged out sixth place finishers The Zombies by about 9,000 votes.
Interestingly, Radiohead and Rage Against the Machine – probably the most critically acclaimed of the acts in contention – came well short of the top five, finishing 12th and 13th.
Bon Jovi was first eligible in 2008, and first nominated in 2011. Since then, founding guitarist Richie Sambora has left the band but there’ll be no grudges held by him. “Of course (I’ll play),” said Sambora, in October on the Trunk Nation show on SiriusXM. “It’s so good to be recognized. It’s a thrill.”
Bon Jovi being inducted isn’t quite a done deal yet. The top five fan-voted acts count as only one of more than 800 total ballots “consisting of artists, music historians and music industry insiders.”
But you could certainly argue omens are positive—Since the Fan Vote was created, the top vote-getter in each year (previously Rush, KISS, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Chicago, Journey) has resulted in being inducted into the Rock Hall.
The winners of the overall vote will be announced on Wednesday (December 13) and inducted in April 2018 in Cleveland.
