Styx musician Dennis DeYoung is dragging the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
The singer-keyboardist, 78, shared a scathing Facebook message on Thursday where he blasted the organization for waiting too long to induct iconic musicians as new members.
“It’s a shame that Bad Company had to wait so long to get in that it rendered Paul Rodgers unable to perform due to health concerns,” DeYoung wrote. “Bollocks!! I would have liked to have seen him perform years ago to demonstrate how one of rock’s premiere singers ACTUALLY ROCKS.”
“You know, like the name on their institution’s logo. I have said this repeatedly for decades: Just change the damn name,” he added.
The 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony took place in Cleveland on Nov. 8, but Rodgers, 75, was unable to attend due to health issues stemming from multiple previous strokes.
DeYoung said that Rodgers’ absence from the ceremony was proof of “the tragic manner in which this joint operates.”
“Making so many musicians wait until they either incapacitated or dead is shameful,” he stated. “Joe Cocker, Warren Zevon et al are suddenly eligible decades after their success? Explain that, what’s changed except the Hall’s inability to let go of their clear prejudices and induct them? They now admit, when it’s far too late that they have erred. Have Joe, Warren and others recently become more popular? …no.”
“The Hall’s initial mission statement about who qualifies was always a ruse and a joke concocted to protect their own personal choices. I’ll stop now before I need BP meds,” DeYoung continued. “I have said this before — as someone whose band has never been considered, whatever I write ends up sounding like sour grapes.”
The Post has reached out to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for comment.
According to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s website, artists eligible for nomination “must have released their first commercial recording 25 full years prior to the year of Induction.”
Bad Company, Chubby Checker, Cyndi Lauper, Joe Cocker, Outkast, Soundgarden and The White Stripes were among the 2025 inductees at this year’s ceremony.
Styx still hasn’t been inducted into the Hall of Fame, which DeYoung addressed in a 2020 interview with Rolling Stone.
“I want to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because we deserve to be. I’m sickened by the fact that we’re not,” he said. “I know that’s going to look really bad in print.”
“There was a time the Hall was controlled and run by a certain mentality, which I respect. I do,” he explained. “The people who raise the money and got it, those people have the right to put who they want in there. It’s their deal.”
DeYoung added, “But in recent years, too many of our peers have gotten the nod. Is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the be all, end all? Of course, it isn’t. But it’s the only one.”
