Meet the 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductees

Eminem, aka Slim Shady, born Marshall Mathers, fled a troubled Detroit childhood for Los Angeles and rhymed his way to the top of the hip-hop kingdom. He courted controversy through feuds, family dramas and homophobic lyrics, but his confessional and powerful songs also addressed dirty politicians (“Mosh”), domestic violence (“Love the Way You Lie”) and injustice (“White America”). Eminem, 50, helped build rap into the best-selling genre on earth. He has won 15 Grammys and was the first artist to rack up 10 consecutive No. 1 album debuts on the Billboard 200.

Lionel Richie ruled the airwaves in the late 1970s and 1980s, first as a vocalist for funky hit machine The Commodores and then as an R&B balladeer. Richie, 73, glided to chart heights with hits like “Three Times a Lady,” “All Night Long,” and his Diana Ross duet “Endless Love.” He cowrote “We Are the World” with Michael Jackson, the 1985 charity single that sold 20 million copies. His silky, expressive voice, poignant love songs, and spirited dance tunes have influenced a wide range of artists ever since his Commodores signed with Motown in 1972.

Eurythmics beguiled and unnerved the music world with 1983’s “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).” Singer Annie Lennox, 67, and musician/producer Dave Stewart, 70, brought a synth-infused, psychedelic, futuristic spookiness to mainstream pop with that indelible signature tune, and followup hits “Would I Lie to You,” “Here Comes the Rain Again," and the rousing foul funk anthem “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves,” featuring Aretha Franklin. Lennox’s enticing and intimidating androgynous theatrics in videos and performances cemented their strange charm.

Dolly Parton, 76, born poor yet rich in spirit in rural Tennessee, wrote her first song, “Puppy Love,” at 11, and moved to Nashville after high school. She wrote nearly 3,000 songs, and her girly yet determined voice and over-the-top image propelled her long ride to the top, where she has remained for six decades. “Jolene,” “Here You Come Again,” “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You” are songs we will always love.

Carly Simon, 77, grew up as the wealthy daughter of Simon & Schuster’s cofounder, but her confessional songs about love, betrayal, loss and family spoke to contemporary women across all classes and generations. The Grammy winner for best new artist for her 1971 breakthrough “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be,” she scored a string of hits: “Anticipation,” “Haven’t Got Time for the Pain,” “Nobody Does It Better,” “Mockingbird” (a duet with then-husband James Taylor), and her most famous tune, “You’re So Vain.” Mick Jagger and Warren Beatty probably think it’s about them.