LOS ANGELES — Lionel Richie soared. Pat Benatar roared. Duran Duran stumbled but stayed sophisticated.
The three acts found different ways to celebrate on Saturday night, but all can now forever say they’re Rock & Roll Hall of Famers. So are Carly Simon, Eminem, Eurythmics, Dolly Parton, Harry Belafonte and Judas Priest.
The first act inducted at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles after a memorable speech from a shaven-headed Robert Downey Jr., Duran Duran took the stage and launched into their 1981 breakthrough hit “Girls on Film.”
The shrieking crowd was there for it, but the music wasn’t. The band was all but inaudible other than singer Simon Le Bon, whose vocals were essentially acapella.
It was a fun if inauspicious beginning to a mostly slick and often triumphant show.
“The wonderful spontaneous world of rock ‘n’ roll!” the 64-year-old Le Bon shouted as the band stopped for a do-over.
They kicked back in at full volume, playing a set that included “Hungry Like the Wolf” and “Ordinary World,” quickly snapping back into what Downey called their essential quality: “CSF — cool, sophisticated fun.”
In a room full of Duran Duran stans, Le Bon and bandmates John Taylor, Roger Taylor and Nick Rhodes provided what the singer said in his acceptance speech was the essence of their job over the past 40 years: “We get to make people feel better about themselves.”
Lionel Richie brought both chill and warmth to the room hours later, opening his set with a spare rendition of his ballad “Hello” that seemed to make him nearly break down from the weight of the moment.
“His songs are the soundtrack of my life, your life, everyone’s life,” Lenny Kravitz said in inducting Richie.
“To name all of his brilliant songs would take, well, all night long,” he added, invoking the name of the hit Richie would light up the room with a few minutes later in a singalong set that brought the night’s most enthusiastic reaction.
After “Hello,” Richie breezed into his 1977 hit with the Commodores, “Easy.” The vibe went from smooth to triumphant when Foo Fighters front man Dave Grohl made a surprise appearance to play a guitar solo and swap vocals with Richie.
In his acceptance speech, Richie lashed out at those during his career who accused him of straying too far from his Black roots.
“Rock & Roll is not a color,” he said. “It is a feeling. It is a vibe. And if we let that vibe come through, this room will grow and grow and grow.”
Eurythmics took the stage next with a soulful, danceable rendition of 1986’s “Missionary Man.”
“Well I was born an original sinner, I was born from original sin,” singer Annie Lennox belted, bringing the audience clapping and to its feet four hours into the show. It was followed by a rousing rendition of their best-known hit, “Sweet Dreams.”
Moments later her musical partner, Dave Stewart, called Lennox “one of the greatest performers, singers and songwriters of all time.”
“Thank you, Dave, for this great adventure,” a tearful Lennox said.
Hitmakers of the 1980s defined the night.
“Pat always reached into the deepest part of herself and came roaring out of the speakers,” Sheryl Crowe said in her speech inducting Benatar. “She rocked as hard as any man but still kept her identity as a woman.”
Benatar took the stage and displayed that power moments later.
“We are young!” the 69-year-old sang, her long, gray hair flowing as she soared through a version of 1983’s “Love is a Battlefield” with so much improvisation that most in the crowd didn’t recognize it until halfway through the first verse.
Her set was marked by blistering solos from Neil Giraldo, her longtime musical partner, husband, co-grandparent and now fellow member of the Rock Hall.
Inductees absent from the ceremony included Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor, who is four years into a fight with advanced prostate cancer, the 95-year-old Belafonte and Simon, who lost sisters Joanna Simon and Lucy Simon, both also singers, to cancer on back-to-back days.
Carly Simon was a first-time nominee this year more than 25 years after becoming eligible. Olivia Rodrigo, 60 years Simon’s junior and by far the youngest performer of the night, then took the stage to sing Simon’s signature song, “You’re So Vain.”
Janet Jackson appeared in a black suit with a massive pile of hair atop her head, remaking the cover of her breakthrough album “Control,” as she inducted the two men who made that and many other records with her, writer-producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.
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