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Judas Priest And Soundgarden Made The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Short List

The two heavy bands join Pat Benetar, Dave Matthews Band, and the Doobie Brothers in the Top Five.

Judas Priest And Soundgarden Made The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Short List
Judas Priest Photo:
Chris Casey

This year's Rock And Roll Hall of Fame nominees included an awesome crop of heavy bands, including Motörhead, Nine Inch Nails, and Thin Lizzy. But fan voting for the nominees ended on January 10, and now the Hall of Fame have released their Fan Ballot final standings.

Here's who made it into the Top Five:

1. Dave Matthews Band: 1,005,657 votes
2. Pat Benatar: 882,207 votes
3. The Doobie Brothers: 784,729 votes
4. Soundgarden: 722,931 votes
5. Judas Priest: 675,434 votes

And here's how the other artists landed:

6. Whitney Houston: 593,374 votes
7. Depeche Mode: 563612 votes
8. Thin Lizzy: 556,476 votes
9. Motörhead: 512,918 votes
10. Todd Rundgren: 440,898 votes
11. Nine Inch Nails: 380,869 votes
12. T.Rex: 365,290 votes
13. The Notorious B.I.G.: 275,892 votes
14. Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan: 166,596 votes
15. Ktaftwerk: 163,667 votes
16. MC5: 160,685 votes

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While it's a bummer that Motörhead, NIN, Thin Lizzy, and the MC5 didn't make it, Priest and Soundgarden are two pretty legendary bands who definitely deserve their places on this ranking, and we would never speak ill of Pat Benetar. Congratulations to them all.

Motörhead's nomination was complicated from the get-go, with judges originally nominating only the band's founding line-up -- a move that didn't impress Mikkey Dee, their drummer of the last 25 years.

“That is pure wrong, I would say,” Mikkey said in an interview at the time., “and I know Phil will be very disappointed, too. We’ve been carrying the flag for 25 years together, and actually brought Motörhead to what it was. We did 25 years out of the 40. The original band lasted just a few years. They started it off, but as Lemmy said himself they wouldn’t have lasted another six months doing that lineup. I don’t think we would’ve been where we are today without the 25 years we spent touring.”

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