MÖTLEY CRÜE, IRON MAIDEN And BLINK-182 Are Leading ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME's 'Voice Your Choice' Fan Vote

MÖTLEY CRÜE, BLINK-182 and IRON MAIDEN are leading in Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame's in-museum "Voice Your Choice" fan vote.

Fans can cast their ballot in person at the Rock Hall museum in Cleveland using the "Voice Your Choice" interactive section in the new Hall Of Fame Gallery.

More than 80,000 votes have been cast at the museum in Cleveland during the year, with MÖTLEY CRÜE at 3152 votes as of this past weekend, followed by BLINK-182 at 2217, IRON MAIDEN at 1771, and DAVE MATTHEWS BAND at 1552. CRÜE has been surging since the release of the band's biopic "The Dirt" on Netflix in March.

Anyone who visits the museum is allowed to take part in the poll, which is separate from the annual fan vote that takes place once the nominees have been revealed.

The official nominees for the Class Of 2020 will be announced on October 15.

The Rock Hall's poll will be used to create a single online fan vote. That will be matched against more than 1,000 voters consisting of artists, historians and members of the music business.

The artists who get the most votes will be announced around December and will be inducted at a ceremony next spring.

Last fall, Rock Hall nominating committee member Alan Light told SiriusXM that he and his colleagues did in fact take the Rock Hall museum's "Voice Your Choice" visitor poll into account when considering the 2019 nominees. Stevie Nicks and DEF LEPPARD were the top two leaders all summer and both were nominated. But Rock Hall foundation president Joel Peresman denied the poll's influence to the Plain Dealer, saying: "The new in-museum voting system does not factor into the nomination process as the members of the nominating committee aren't made aware of that. And we rely on their independent thinking, which in this case happened to match up."

Earlier this year, MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx said that the group was told by the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame that it will never be inducted into the institution because of how he and his bandmates "acted."

Despite the fact that artists are eligible for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame 25 years after the release of their first album or single, iconic hard rock and metal bands like MÖTLEY CRÜE (which has been eligible since 2006),IRON MAIDEN and JUDAS PRIEST have yet to be recognized by the institution, which inducted GUNS N' ROSES in that group's first year of eligibility.

Back in 2015, Sixx said that if his band was ever honored into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, he would "probably decline" the nomination, explaining that the Rock Hall "has lost touch with art, songwriting craft, lyrics and influential music." He explained: "It's a fixed old-boy network that has lost touch with art, songwriting craft, lyrics and influential music and usually has other agendas at hand. Young bands tell me it's a joke, and these bands are the future."

Three months later, CRÜE guitarist Mick Mars told Rolling Stone that he didn't think the band would ever get the Rock Hall nod. "We were there when the thing was being built; we had to wear hard hats while we were walking around the building site. They were like, 'One of these days, you guys will be in here!' Right. [Laughs] I'd have to say, 80 percent no, 20 percent yeah. But it's like when you're a kid in kindergarten, and you take a nap and get a gold star as a reward. I don't need a few handful of people to say that I got a gold star, because I already got it from my fans. I see the crowds, I see the enthusiasm, I see all that stuff, and that's already satisfying enough for me."

Drummer Tommy Lee told Rolling Stone that he was somewhat torn on the question of even wanting to be in the Hall in the first place. "I do give a shit about it, because it's a time-stamp, it's the acknowledgement of your peers and fans and the music industry," he explained. "But then again, there's a part of me that goes, 'If we don't, that's fucking cool, too!' In my heart, I know that we came, we saw, we kicked its fucking ass; I don't need a pat on the back, or an induction, or another platinum album or two. Maybe I'm just not good with compliments."

Singer Vince Neil chimed in: "We'll probably go in at some point, but we might not all be alive when it happens. Our grandkids will probably have to pick up the awards."

MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson made headlines last fall 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."

Photo credit: Paul Brown