Salt-N-Pepa, Outkast among Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's newest inductees

Salt-N-Pepa threw on the multicolored leather jackets from their “Push It” video and brought the crowd at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony to its feet with a romping rendition of their 1987 breakthrough hit.

“This is for every woman who picked up a mic when they told her she couldn’t,” Cheryl “Salt” James said Saturday while accepting the musical influence award that made her, Sandra “Pepa” Denton and DJ Spinderella members of the hall.

In a rousing speech at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, James brought up their fight to reclaim their master recordings from Universal Music Group.

“The industry still doesn’t want to play fair, Salt-N-Pepa have never been afraid of a fight,” James said.

They took the stage for a medley of their hits. They opened with “Shoop” then slid into “Let’s Talk About Sex” before En Vogue joined them for their joint hit “What a Man.” “Push It” pushed the energy up another notch.

Spinderella became the first female DJ to enter the hall.

“The female rappers had to step to the mic and show that they could go toe to toe with the guys. And Salt, Pepa and Spinderella did it,” Missy Elliott said while inducting the trio.

Chappell Roan was set to induct Cyndi Lauper. 

Outkast don’t perform, but appear together

Outkast didn’t perform together for the first time since 2016 as some had hoped, but the duo stood together on stage, surrounded by a crew of friends and cohorts as they gave grateful speeches after doing rock-paper-scissors to decide who would go first.

Andre 3000 gave a long, rambling funny speech — “I’m freestylin’ y’all!” — that ended in tears when he talked about their very beginnings in a basement “dungeon” in Atlanta in the early 1990s.

He choked out the words, “Great things start in little rooms.”

Andre sat out the performance but Big Boi, wearing shorts and a fur coat, started off an express tour through the Atlanta duo’s discography that included Tyler the Creator, JID and Killer Mike.

Janelle Monáe joined them to shake her way through “Hey Ya” and Doja Cat delivered a sly and soulful take on “Ms. Jackson.”

In his speech inducting them, Donald Glover praised them as “two visionaries who turned their differences into a dynasty.”

An emotional Jim Carrey remembers Chris Cornell while inducting Soundgarden

Emotions ran deep during Soundgarden’s segment of the night, starting with the induction speech of Jim Carrey, the actor and Soundgarden super-fan who seemed to be fighting off tears throughout as he talked about Cornell, who died from suicide in 2017.

“When you looked into his eyes, it’s like eternity was staring back,” Carrey said. “For all time, his voice will continue to light up the ether like a Tesla coil.”

Each of his bandmates, all major godfathers of the Seattle grunge scene, paid their own tearful tributes.

One of Cornell’s daughters, Lilian, spoke for him while another, Toni, sang a quiet rendition of his song “Fell on Black Days.”

“I am just really really happy that he got to make music with his friends,” Lilian Cornell said.

Taylor Momsen, who co-starred as a child with Carrey in “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” and Brandi Carlile showed serious vocal power with their versions of Cornell’s mighty wail, backed by his bandmates on “Rusty Cage” and “Black Hole Sun.”

Bassist Hiro Yamamoto was among the few who brought up the politics of the moment from the stage.

“Thanks to my parents, whose story is American citizens who are rounded up and placed into prison camps just for being Japanese during World War II,” Yamamoto said to some of the biggest cheers of the night. “Well that affected my life greatly, and it really echoes strongly today. Let’s not add another story like this to our history.”

Meg White not in attendance for induction of The White Stripes

The White Stripes reunion that some fans had hoped for didn’t happen. Their induction was among the highlights of the night anyway. Twenty One Pilots brought the house down with a version of the duo’s stadium-shaking anthem “Seven Nation Army” and Olivia Rodrigo and Feist doing a mid-audience acoustic version of “We’re Gonna Be Friends.”

Their fellow Detroit rock legend Iggy Pop began his induction speech by leading the crowd in a chorus of “Seven Nation Army” then remembered his thoughts on meeting them.

“Cute kids, they’re gonna go places,” Pop said. “And they did.”

Drummer Meg White, who has led an almost entirely private life since the band broke up in 2011, did not show up for the ceremony, but Jack White said Meg, his ex-wife, helped him write the speech he delivered while wearing the band’s signature red and white.

Jack White shouted out several great duos from across culture and said that kind of one-on-one collaboration is “the most beautiful thing you can have as an artist and musician.”

He nearly cried several times as he told an Adam-and-Eve-like tale of “the boy and the girl” who made magic together, “knowing that they have shared and made another person feel something.”

Stevie Wonder pays tribute to Sly Stone

Stevie Wonder led a funky and flashy tribute to the late Sly Stone to open the show that’s streaming live on Disney+, will be available on Hulu Sunday and will air in an edited version on ABC on Jan 1.

Wonder was joined Saturday night by Questlove, Leon Thomas, Maxwell, Beck, Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers for rousing renditions of Sly and the Family Stone hits “Dance to the Music,” “Everyday People” and “Thank You.” Jennifer Hudson joined them to wail through “Higher.”

Stone, who was inducted into the hall in 1993, died in June. Brian Wilson, who died two days later, will also get a tribute from Elton John.

Mick Fleetwood opens ceremony, inducts Bad Company

Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac began the ceremony proper by inducting Bad Company. He called the British group founded by Paul Rodgers and Mick Ralphs in 1973 “classic rock legends” and “one of the first super groups,” but said that, more importantly, “they were four great musicians who came together for the love of music.”

Rodgers had to skip the ceremony because of health issues and Ralphs died earlier this year, so drummer Simon Kirke was the only member who took the stage.

He was joined by an ad hoc super group that blasted through a few of the super group’s biggest hits.

Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson took lead vocals on their hit “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” with Nancy Wilson of Heart and Joe Perry of Aerosmith on guitars. Bryan Adams took the stage to sing “Can’t Get Enough.”

“I’ve never played in a tuxedo before” said Kirke as he accepted the honor for the group.

He got emotional as he thanked Ralphs’ wife Susie for taking care of him.

David Letterman inducts the late Warren Zevon

The late singer-songwriter Warren Zevon was inducted by David Letterman, a friend and superfan who made Zevon a regular on his NBC late-night show.

“Warren Zevon is in my Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” Letterman said. “Actually his own wing.”

A clip was shown from Zevon’s final appearance on the show in 2002, when he was dying of cancer. “Enjoy every sandwich,” Zevon said when Letterman asked what he’d learned about mortality.

Letterman was tearful as he showed the crowd a guitar that Zevon gave him later that night.

“He’s never going away,” Bruce Springsteen said in a recorded tribute. “He’s got a body of work that’s as good as anybody’s.”

Letterman outlined several categories of Zevon’s cleverly emotional tunes, the final one being “songs about werewolves” to a big laugh from the crowd. 1978’s “Werewolves of London” was Zevon’s biggest, and most unlikely, hit.

The Killers then played Zevon’s second-biggest hit, “Lawyers, Guns and Money.”