Though its absence from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has been criticized from many quarters, Iron Maiden is pleased that the number of its beast has finally come up for induction.

The heavy metal stalwart was previously nominated in 2021 and 2023 and has been near the top of most lists of Rock Hall snubs over the years. Now it’s one of eight acts in the performer category that will be inducted during the shrine’s annual ceremony on Nov. 14 in Los Angeles. The group — which formed in 1975 in London — also received 395,000 votes in the fan vote.

In a statement following Monday night’s announcement on American Idol, longtime Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood said, “We’d like to thank the Rock & 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 recognised and honoured for any achievements within the music industry too!”

Smallwood added that, “It also seems appropriate for the band to be inducted into the Rock & 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 tour, which focuses on material from Iron Maiden’s first nine albums, launched last May in Europe and picks up again on May 23 in Greece, with dates through November in Europe, North and South America, New Zealand, Australia and Japan. Additionally, a documentary film, Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition, opens in theaters worldwide on May 7. The group has said it’s planning a break for 2027.

Guitarist Adrian Smith recently told Billboard in an interview about the film that Iron Maiden’s long history of road work is as integral to the band’s connection with fans as its body of 17 studio albums. “It’s always been a touring band — tour, tour, tour, tour,” Smith notes. “Obviously there were albums in between that, but the philosophy was, ‘Let’s do this the hard way,’ I guess. We were never gonna get massive hit records — and I’m not criticizing people who did. What I’m saying is … we took the music to the people. I think in the long run people remember that, and it’s a very honest way to build up a following. We’re getting the payback for that now. It’s like a celebration, the band and the audience, ‘Look what we’ve done together!’ There’s always been that connection.”

As Smallwood notes, the Rock Hall induction will honor past members such as the late Paul Di’Anno and Clive Burr, as well as ‘90s frontman Blaze Bayley and longtime drummer Nicko McBrain, who retired from touring after 2024 due to health issues. The constant throughout has been bassist Steve Harris, who’s shepherded Maiden through myriad personnel changes and musical trends that have not always been kind to metal bands.

“He’s the driving force behind the band; he always has been and probably always will be,” Smith acknowledged. “We’re part of it. We’re contributors. But Steve is who’s really kept this alive.”

There’s no word yet on what Maiden might have planned for the ceremony. Frontman Bruce Dickinson, who’s in his second stint with the band, has been outspoken in the past about his disdain for the Rock Hall, labeling it “an utter, complete load of bollocks” while speaking to fans in 2018. He’s also said he feels Maiden deserves to be inducted, however.

It’s been a good week for the Ed Sullivan estate and those associated with it.

Within a six-day period, the 2025 Netflix documentary Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan received nominations for Emmy and Peabody Awards, and on Monday (April 13) night, it was revealed that the legendary late TV host will receive the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame‘s 2026 Ahmet Ertegun Award for non-performers, making him one of a handful of broadcasters to  be so honored.

The ceremony takes place Nov. 14 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

“We’re thrilled,” Margo Precht-Speciale, Sullivan’s granddaughter and producer of Sunday Best, tells Billboard via Zoom along with Andrew and Josh Solt, whose SOFA Entertainment Inc. acquired rights to The Ed Sullivan Show from the family in 1990. “More than anything my grandfather was a man driven by a genuine love of talent, and he brought that love to the American public on his show every Sunday night. Millions of people would watch and the next day discuss who they saw on his show. People would buy records. It had a tremendous impact on the American culture at the time, and also today.”

Airing from 1948 (known as The Toast of the Town until 1955) to 1971 on CBS — with an inaugural episode that featured W.C. Handy, aka the Father of the Blues — the Sullivan Show averaged 40 million viewers each Sunday night. Over the course of its 1,068 episodes, it hosted 74 future Rock Hall inductees among its more than 10,000 performances — the most famous, of course, being the Beatles performance on Feb. 9, 1964, for which a reported 73 million viewers (and 60 percent of all television sets in the country) tuned in to watch. Prior to that, Elvis Presley’s Sept. 9, 1956 appearance attracted 60 million viewers (82.6 percent of the television audience).

The Harlem-born Sullivan — who passed away during 1974, appropriately on a Sunday night, at the age of 73 — was also known for his diversity and inclusivity. He deflected threatened advertiser boycotts and network concerns to book a broad variety of acts regardless of color or gender, ranging from Bo Diddley, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Nat “King” Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and many more. He also had a tight relationship with Motown founder Berry Gordy, Jr. and featured many of the company’s acts, and Sullivan fought to have Harry Belafonte on the show after network executives tried to ban the singer due to his political activism. All of that made Sullivan a significant, if subtle, advocate during the American Civil Rights movement.

“He was so open to all kinds of music,” notes SOFA’s Andrew Solt. “He loved rhythm & blues, and he loved the blues. If you were on Sullivan on Sunday night, on Monday you were selling records. And the families at home were loving it; (Sullivan) made a show for all the generations, kids and grandparents. He wanted to unify the family.”

Sullivan’s openness extended to country, jazz, gospel Broadway and other genres, making him a trusted and impactful influencer well before the Internet came into being. And after the Beatles’ success the show featured provocative counterculture artists such as the Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, the Young Rascals and Sly and the Family Stone. The Doors were famously banned from future shows after reneging on a pre-telecast agreement to change the lyrics to “Light My Fire” — “higher” was the offending word — during the group’s Sept. 17, 1967 appearance.

“So many of the names on his show, nobody knew them when they appeared, and now they’re household names,” says Precht-Speciale, whose late father Bob Precht produced the Sullivan Show from 1960-71. “He had a great instinct, and he knew what people would genuinely like, and he just had such joy bringing it to everybody’s living room on those Sunday nights.” SOFA’s Josh Solt adds that, “I’ve heard people say it was the greatest collection of talent ever to appear on a single stage which is incredible to think about…. His eye for talent, as Margo said, was second to none. He’s such a pivotal person in American history by televising all these great artists, in their prime.”

The Rock Hall honor is something Precht-Speciale and the Solts say they’ve hoped for over the years but did not campaign for it and they were surprised by the news. They’re confident that Sunday Best, as well as SOFA’s efforts, helped push the selection; since the latter entered into a global digital rights agreement with UMe in 2020, The Ed Sullivan Show channel on YouTube has surpassed more than a million subscribers, with more than three billion streams. In addition to the musical performances SOFA has also established new audiences for early Muppets appearances and for Topo Gigio, the mouse puppet Sullivan would famously kiss goodnight at the end of episodes. The company has also worked on other documentaries and well as museum exhibitions and other avenues to expose the archive.

“We’ve just been trying to preserve Ed Sullivan’s legacy and showcase it and bring it to the masses…and connect with younger generations who might not have watched the show but know the acts or know these different viral moments we’ve had,” explains Josh Solt. “It’s such a reference point for history. We’ve uploaded so many iconic moments; we’re now going deeper with some hidden gems, as we like to call them. We want to continue that connection with the culture.”

The theater where The Ed Sullivan Show was broadcast from 1953-1971 was opened during 1927 as Hammerstein’s Theatre but was rechristened with his name in 1967. After Sullivan it was also home to the Merv Griffin Show, Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell, Late Show with David Letterman and, currently, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The latter is preparing for its final show on May 21, and Precht-Speciale says there’s symmetry between her grandfather’s pursuit and what Colbert has done there since 2015.

“Stephen Colbert and my grandfather both used their platforms at the Ed Sullivan Theater for something bigger,” she explains. “For my grandfather it was booking artists who weren’t getting other opportunities. He used that spotlight to open doors. For Colbert it’s calling out power with humor; he uses his wit to challenge the status quote and make people think. There’s been many parallels between the two, the connection obviously being the Ed Sullivan Theater.

Other broadcasters who have received the Rock Hall’s Ertegun Award include Alan Freed, Dick Clark, Tom Donahue, Don Kirshner and Don Cornelius. This year’s Rock Hall induction ceremony will not air live, as it has in recent years, but will be filmed for broadcast during December on ABC and Disney+.

The second time proved to be the charm for Billy Idol at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — and he couldn’t be happier about it.

The veteran punk/New Wave icon – who turned a sneer into a signature style and notched four top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including one chart-topper —  is one of eight acts to be inducted in the performers category at the Rock Hall’s annual induction ceremony, taking place Nov. 14 in Los Angeles. Idol performed as part of Ozzy Osbourne’s induction as a solo artist during the 2024 event in Cleveland and was nominated for the first time last year.

“It’s really exciting,” Idol tells Billboard via Zoom from his home in Los Angeles. He and guitarist Steve Stevens, who will be inducted alongside Idol, performed “Rebel Yell” as part of Monday (April 13) night’s American Idol episode that revealed the inductees. “I can’t believe it. It’s incredible. It’s just fantastic to think that something I was doing for the sheer love of the scene we were in back in the ‘70s, the punk rock scene. We were doing it for the love. We had no idea it was going to explode and lead to me doing this for 50 years. So it’s all really incredible and something I just couldn’t have imagined when I was starting out.”

Idol, who learned of the induction a few days before the announcement, adds that he “got quite emotional just telling Steve Stevens a few minutes ago.” And having to wait a year from his first nomination only makes getting in that much sweeter.

“Certainly being part of Ozzy’s induction…that really showed me what the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is about, really,” he explains. “It’s about other artists joining together, and you’re getting respect from your peers, which is really pretty incredible. So many of my heroes, going back to the ‘50s — Bo Diddley and Elvis (Presley) and Buddy Holly, Little Richard, even Eddie Cochran…. That’s pretty incredible that other people think you should be in something like this.

“It’s just been fantastic, being part of this musical revolution we really believed in and to be pushing the culture along. It’s been really fun, and a dream come true. And then this is just icing on the cake, just … wow, what an honor! I almost can’t put it into words. To be able to have your peers vote you in and that, it’s pretty special.”

Idol received 601,000 votes on this year’s Rock Hall fan ballot, more than twice as many as he got in 2025. “That’s the other thing,” he notes. “You get a chance to really thank your fans in person. That’s really special. They helped to put you where you are, stuck with you through thick and thin. Just to get a chance to really thank them is a fantastic moment. I’m looking forward to it, really.”

Idol hasn’t given much thought yet to what November ceremony will entail but says “we’re in a really good place to perform” there. He was on the road last year to support his 2025 album Dream Into It and will head out again in July, with U.S. dates running into late September as well as a five-night residency at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas starting Aug. 28. The documentary film Billy Idol Should Be Dead, meanwhile, is streaming on Hulu.

“We’re on a roll now,” he says, “my band and I and Steve, so I know we’re gonna bring it, bring out the whole thing — the whole attitude and everything. It’s a perfect moment for us to be inducted. We are still at the top of my game.”

In addition, Idol says he’s planning to start working on his next album in June, hoping for release in 2027 but acknowledging that “you never really know how long it’s gonna take you before you start.” Nevertheless, Idol adds that “there’s a bit of a direction we might go in. The last album was very rock ‘n’ roll; I think we’re going to put an element of dance back into this next album. But you never know where it’s going. You plan, but there’s a lot of things you just have to find out when you’re doing it and start seeing songs and see what you have.”

As previously announced, big changes are coming to the Oscars. In 2029, the show will move from ABC (its network home since 1976) to YouTube and from the Dolby Theater in Hollywood (its home base for every show but one since 2002) to the Peacock Theater in the L.A. Live complex.

But, until then, the show will stay the course. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and ABC announced on Tuesday (April 7) that the 99th Oscars will take place on Sunday, March 14, 2027, and that the 100th Oscars will take place on Sunday, March 5, 2028. This is similar to recent years. This year’s show aired on Sunday, March 15. The 2025 show aired on Sunday, March 2. The upcoming shows will air live at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.

The Oscars didn’t announce who will host the 2027 show, but no one would be surprised if they turned again to Conan O’Brien, who was widely praised for his work hosting the last two shows. If O’Brien does get the nod, he would become the first person to host the Oscars three years running since Billy Crystal hosted four straight Oscar telecasts from 1990-93.

The Academy also announced key dates for the 2027 Oscars season, though they cautioned that these dates are subject to change.