Not to mention Moz is fighting cancer at the moment.
He has said he’d sooner eat meat than get on stage again with Johnny Marr.
This year seems to be missing a Rush/KISS “shut-the-vocal-whiners-up” nomination. Looks like Yes fans (and Chubby Checker) need to complain louder.
My predictions (and you can search for previous years to see how bad my predictions are - I hover around 50%)
Locks
Lou Reed - Swept in on the “just-died” sympathy vote. Given how many critics have boners for him, I’m surprised he wasn’t already in. Metal Machine Music couldn’t have turned off that many people, could it?
N.W.A - Only hip-hop act on the ballot, and the hall needs to fill their quota.
Highly likely
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - Only female rocker on the ballot, so most likely in this time.
Chic - Nile Rodgers should have gotten in for his production work years ago, and Chic has been nominated but passed over lots of times. Better than usual chance of getting in this year.
Green Day/Nine Inch Nails - Gotta show the Millennials the HoF is still relevant, and these two are the only nominees that are still active outside the county fair circuit. But I think only one will get in this year, more likely Green Day. Trent hasn’t had a Broadway musical yet.
Maybe
Stevie Ray Vaughan - will probably get the fan vote this year.
Sting - most name recognition of the remaining nominees
Kraftwerk - The Hall seems to like to always put in one lesser-known but influential act to show how hip they are. Kraftwerk has been nominated before and their current 3D Catalogue shows are well received. I think they have a shot.
Not this time
The Smiths - although it would be awesome to see Morrissey flip out over all the leather jackets and non-vegan dinner options.
The Spinners
The Marvelettes - The hall loves Girl Groups, but the ballot is too full already
Bill Withers
War
Paul Butterfield Blues Band.
Joan Jett should be a lock for The Runaways and for her proto-Riot Grrl Godmother position.
Bill Withers’ songs still get more play than most of the other bands listed. I play the two chords for Use Me, invariably I get someone whipping their head around and saying “ooooo, I love that song - that’s Bill Withers, right?” But yeah, he will be passed over.
Well, in Bill Withers’s case, I feel like he’s really only known for 4 singles, not so much as a career artist (though I, personally, think he’s great) or an especially influential one a la Kraftwerk, Lou Reed, Joan Jett or The Smiths.
How Green Day can be in before Cheap Trick, when Green Day IS Cheap Trick, is freakin’ incomprehensible.
“Generalissimo Francisco Franco still dead; in other news, the Moody Blues still not nominated for R&RHOF…”
Agreed. He’s not a rock singer, but more of a jazz singer. In fact, his voice has been likened to a jazz instrument. He’s become a whipping boy for some reason, but not for me.
You take that insult to Cheap Trick back THIS INSTANT! 
I love me some Cheap Trick - a Big Star who broke through. But I am struggling with the pokes at Green Day. I will give you that they don’t pave any new ground, but many of the songs are really good. Billie Joe has excellent craft. I heard American Idiot when it came out and immediately heard that it was going to blow up. I am not trying to brag; I am saying that the songs were good.
Billie Joe seems like a sellout who tries to maintain his pose as a rebel, but at some level, a great song is a great song. They have some great songs.
OK. Prog I can understand-I don’t agree with said “reasoning”, at all, but if you want to argue from a strict “It ain’t rock and roll!”, then fine-on that narrow basis, yes, Yes 
and the Moodies don’t belong.
But WTF do they have against metal? If that genre isn’t epitomizing many of the (alleged) virtues of rock, then I don’t know what else-in the name of Hades-does… 
Please forgive the hijack but what are the rules, more specifically, what were the rules that kept the E-Street Band out when Springsteen was first inducted?
Billy Joe on the recording of Dookie: “We got to make exactly the kind of record we wanted to make and somebody else paid for it. What’s more punk than that?”
In the Dookie days, they were accused of selling out by the Berkeley/Gilman St. punk scene they were part of, but I thought it was just excellent power pop with a punk edge. And even American Idiot was an ambitious moonshot of a record. But the Broadway production, the next opera, the 3-record set, the meltdown he had - he’s trying to figure out the next big move and not making it work for him…
As far as I can tell, there was no specific rule prohibiting the E Street Band from being inducted alongside Springsteen. It just seems to have been the practice pre-2000 or so to induct frontmen without their groups: thus, Buddy Holly without the Crickets, Smokey Robinson without the Miracles, Bill Haley without the Comets, James Brown without the Famous Flames, etc. Most of these backing groups were inducted en masse by committee in 2012. The E Street Band were inducted in 2014 in the sidemen category.
They later changed their practice so Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers were inducted as a unit (2002), as were Elvis Costello & the Attractions (2003).
Joan Jett is my lock on that. If she and the Blackhearts can’t get into the R&RHOF then that’s that, give up and burn it down. She rocks harder than anyone on that list.
Of the others, Sting probably has the best case. But I’ve always thought Lou Reed is an overhyped tool who has his fame because he had the right friends at the right time.
As with some others, I’m horrified that 90s bands are getting enough longevity to be nominated. Urgh. Green Day could get in, though I’ve always thought of them as a singles act they’ve certainly taken it further than I ever thought they could. And the one time I saw them they were brilliant.
For emotional impact on me, personally, I’d go with Bill Withers, but I know that’s wishful thinking. Frankly, even nominating him is silly.
I’m pretty sure it was more than that. Apparently Miami Steve was pretty pissed and tried to get Bruce to throw his weight around for the rest of the band to be included. Bruce instead took a “rules are rules” approach.
To be fair, the rules who are and aren’t included in an induction are pretty much done on a case by case basis. John Dalton wasn’t included in the Kinks induction, and neither was Mark Evans for AC/DC. That’s despite being in these bands for key periods. In contrast, Robert Hunter was inducted with the Grateful Dead despite never recording or appearing on stage with the Dead. Why? Because he wrote a lot of the Dead’s lyrics, and supposedly Jerry Garcia threatened not to show up if Hunter wasn’t included.
I happened to be at Kraftwerk’s first gig in the U.S., back in 1975, after Autobahn made them FM-famous. They had the neon boxes with their glowing names placed by each synth. A couple of teens behind us started goofing on the funny names - Ralf, Florian. We gathered that they had no idea who Kraftwerk was: they just attended every concert.
Never did find out what they thought of the music, but it was a fine concert. Never rocked once for a moment. What the hell difference does that make? Kraftwerk is more important than Joan Jett and the Blackhearts will ever be. (Sorry, JC.)
So are most of the other nominees. You don’t need to “rock” to be rock. The HoF has its flaws, but looking at the whole great wide world of rock music isn’t one of them.
Don’t see Warren Zevon.
Don’t see J. Geils Band.
Don’t see Bobby Vee.
Don’t care.
I don’t see The Residents, either. They put out some fantastic stuff in the '70s and early '80s. But no one cares.