2026 RockinTown Hall of Fame Nominees

Formed in Seattle in 1987 and rooted in Heavy Metal, the band was known for its distinctive vocal style, which often included the harmonized vocals between the late Lane Staley and guitarist Jerry Cantrell (and later Cantrell with singer William DuVall).

In the US, Alice in Chains has sold over 30 million records. They had 18 Top 10 songs on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks chart – five of which were #1 hits.

Alice In Chains

Man In The Box

Check My Brain

The song is on the band’s ’09 comeback album, “Black Gives Way To Blue.”

The Bangles

The all-female band formed in Los Angeles, in 1981 by Susanna Hoffs and the sisters Vicki and Debbi Peterson and became part of an underground scene heavily influenced by 1960s Rock and psychedelic music. Their early work blended jangly guitar melodies with power-pop sensibilities.

Commercial successes included “Walk Like An Egyptian,” the Prince composed “Manic Monday,” and a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Hazy Shade Of Winter.”

Manic Monday

Hazy Shade Of Winter

As part of the New Wave scene in the late ’70s, the band formed in Boston with guitarist Ric Ocasek and bassist Benjamin Orr sharing lead vocals, with Ocasek serving as the band’s principal songwriter and leader.

The Cars were at the forefront of the merger of 1970s guitar Rock with the new synthesizer-oriented pop that became popular in the early 1980s.

The Cars

Bye Bye Love

You Might Think

The band’s music combines Hard Rock, AOR and Heavy Metal elements, with multi-layered, harmonic vocals and melodic guitar riffs.

Though they were often considered one of the top bands of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal of the mid-1980s, the band was more closely associated with the growing Glam Metal scene, mainly due to their mainstream success and glossy production.

Photograph

Producer Mutt Lange said it was about “young lust in an anthemic song.”

Hysteria

Former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl originally conceived the Foo Fighters as a one-man project for the release of his solo material.

After his songs drew label interest, he recruited bassist Nate Mendel, drummer William Goldsmith and guitarist Pat Smear, who had played with Nirvana on tour. The band made their first public performance in 1995, five months before the album’s release.

Foo Fighters

Everlong

Learn To Fly

Lynyrd Skynyrd

The band spent four years touring small venues under various names and with several lineup changes before deciding on “Lynyrd Skynyrd” in 1968.

They popularized the Southern Rock genre. But after releasing five studio albums and one live album, the band’s career was abruptly halted on October 20, 1977, when their charted airplane crashed, killing singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and backup singer Cassie Gaines and seriously injuring the rest of the band.

Sweet Home Alabama

Free Bird

Guitarist Mick Mars was playing with a band called White Horse, when one of the other band members called the group “a motley looking crew,” Mars remembered the phrase, and after a slight spelling modification, “Mötley Crüe” was eventually selected as the name of the new band he had joined.

Mötley Crüe” has sold over 100 million records worldwide and have achieved seven platinum or multi-platinum certifications.

Mötley Crüe

Kickstart My Heart

Girls, Girls, Girls

Oasis

Vocalist Liam Gallagher asked his older brother Noel (lead guitar, vocals) to join as a fifth member of Oasis just a few months after the band was formed.

Noel became the de facto leader of the group and took over the songwriting duties for the band’s first four studio albums.

Despite the regular and public feuding between the Gallagher brothers, the band was regarded as Britpop’s most globally successful group.

Oasis

Champagne Supernova

The group consisted of Jack White (guitar, keyboards, piano, vocals) and Meg White (drums, percussion, vocals). They were a leading Indie Rock group of 2000s and a key factor in the decade’s Garage Rock revival.

The White Stripes used a low fidelity approach to writing and recording, complimented by a raw simplicity of composition, arrangement, and performance. They released six studio albums, two live albums, one compilation album, and one extended play and received six Grammy Awards from eleven nominations.