It's Official: IRON MAIDEN To Be Inducted Into 2026 ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME

British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN are among the artists who will be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame this year. Also set to be honored in the class of 2026 Performer category are Phil Collins, Billy Idol, JOY DIVISION/NEW ORDER, OASIS, Sade, Luther Vandross and WU-TANG CLAN.

Celia Cruz, Fela Kuti, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, and Gram Parsons will be presented with the Early Influence Award; Philly Soul songwriter Linda Creed, producer Arif Mardin, producer Jimmy Miller and Rick Rubin will be honored with the Musical Excellence Award; and Ed Sullivan will be given the Ahmet Ertegun Award.

"Induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame is music's highest honor," John Sykes, chairman of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, said in a statement. "We look forward to celebrating these remarkable artists at this year's ceremony — it's going to be an unforgettable night."

The ceremony will take place on November 14 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. It will air on ABC and Disney+ the following month.

It should be noted that on November 14 IRON MAIDEN will be in the middle of an Australian tour, with dates booked for November 13 in Melbourne and November 15 in Sydney.

IRON MAIDEN manager Rod Smallwood said in a statement: "We'd like to thank the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame for including us (and former members who were all part of our story) in the 2026 roll call of inductees.

"IRON MAIDEN have always been about our relationship with our fans above anything else, including awards and industry accolades. However, having said that, it's always nice to be recognized and honored for any achievements within the music industry too!"

Smallwood added: "It also seems appropriate for the band to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame this year as we continue our 50th-anniversary celebrations with our 'Run For Your Lives' world tour visiting the Americas and beyond. We would also like to congratulate our fellow 2026 inductees and extend our gratitude as ever to our fans for their loyalty, perseverance and support for over 50 years now! See you all, somewhere on tour."

The MAIDEN musicians being inducted are singer Bruce Dickinson, bassist Steve Harris, drummer Nicko McBrain, and guitarists Adrian Smith, Dave Murray and Janick Gers, along with former guitarist Dennis Stratton, former singers Paul Di'Anno and Blaze Bayley, and former drummer Clive Burr.

Having been eligible for induction since 2005, IRON MAIDEN is one of the biggest bands on the planet. Since the release of their self-titled debut album, the British heavy metal legends have released a further 16 full-length studio records, and sold over 100 million copies.

Rock Hall rules state that artists become eligible a quarter century after their first records were released, but the Hall also claims that other "criteria include the influence and significance of the artists' contributions to the development and perpetuation of rock 'n' roll," which is, of course, open to interpretation.

Eligible for induction since 1999, KISS didn't get its first nomination until 2009, and was finally inducted in 2014.

DEEP PURPLE was eligible for the Rock Hall since 1993 but didn't get inducted until 2016.

Nominees are being voted on by more than 1,200 artists, historians and music industry professionals.

The only metal or metal-adjacent acts to have made it into the Rock Hall so far have been BLACK SABBATH, LED ZEPPELIN, METALLICA, AC/DC, JUDAS PRIEST, KISS, VAN HALEN, RUSH, GUNS N' ROSES, Ozzy Osbourne and DEEP PURPLE.

IRON MAIDEN finished in the fourth place in the fan vote for the 2023 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction class. This year, they reportedly received 395,000 votes in the fan vote.

Seven years ago, Harris said that he didn't care that his band had yet to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame despite the fact that it had been eligible since 2004.

"I don't mind that we're not in things like that," he told Rolling Stone in an interview. "I don't think about things like that. It's very nice if people give you awards or accolades, but we didn't get into the business for that sort of thing. I'm certainly not going to lose sleep if we don't get any sort of award, not just that one, any award. I don't think we deserve to have this or that necessarily. With what we do, whatever comes of it is great. Whatever doesn't come of it is great, too."

Dickinson made headlines in 2018 when he referred to the Rock Hall as "an utter and complete load of bollocks" during a spoken-word gig in Australia, insisting that the Cleveland-based institution is "run by a bunch of sanctimonious bloody Americans who wouldn't know rock and roll if it hit them in the face."

Bruce later told The Jerusalem Post that he was "so annoyed with that coverage because they took my statement out of context to make it seem like I was upset that we weren't in the Hall Of Fame.

"I'm really happy we're not there and I would never want to be there," he continued. "If we're ever inducted, I will refuse — they won't bloody be having my corpse in there.

"Rock and roll music does not belong in a mausoleum in Cleveland," Bruce added. "It's a living, breathing thing, and if you put it in a museum, then it's dead. It's worse than horrible, it's vulgar."

Harris previously told "Rock Talk With Mitch Lafon" that he wasn't concerned about whether IRON MAIDEN would eventually be inducted into the Rock Hall. "I don't really think about it, to be honest. I think awards are things that are nice to have when you get them, but it's not something you're really striving for — it's not what it's about it," he said. "It's never been about that. It's aways been about just trying to make good music and go out and play good live shows, and that's it, really. Hopefully people will appreciate it. It's probably nice when people give you awards — don't get me wrong; I think it's great — but it's not something that you would lose sleep over if you didn't get any.

"It's the way that I am," Harris added. "I don't know. Maybe the rest of the guys [in the band] might think differently to me, but that's the way I think. It's not that I don't care about [awards]. It's just… And it's not that they're not meaningful when you do get 'em — it's nice. But I certainly don't worry about it or anything like that. I think other people are the ones that make a bigger deal out of it than us, about whether we got one or not."