On a night of musical surprises – most notably, Judas Priest's Rob Halford joining fellow inductee Dolly Parton onstage for a version of the latter's Jolene – Dave Grohl was responsible for another, augmenting Lionel Richie's performance of the Commodores' 1977 hit Easy with a deliriously-received guitar solo.
Richie was another of this year's indictees, performing a three song set featuring Hello, All Night Long (All Night) and Easy, with Grohl strolling on almost unnoticed one and a half minutes into the latter before the spotlight picked him out as the solo began. And the crowd went wild.
"My brother @davestruestories you brought the heat," wrote Richie on Instagram.
The Richie/Grohl partnership may sound like an unlikely one, but the pair have history: Richie made a cameo performance in the Foo Fighters' horror movie Studio 666, which was released early this year.
"He was written into the script," Grohl told ET in February. "[The] screenwriters didn't know that I actually know him, so when I read the script I was like, 'Oh my god, let’s just text him!' So I texted him and I'm like, 'Dude we're making a horror film. You want to be in it?' And he was like, 'Absolutely.' And that was it."
Priest were inducted into the Hall Of Fame courtesy of a special Musical Excellence award, with Alice Cooper calling them "electrifying on stage and one of the hardest-hitting live bands in the history of rock'n'roll."
They went on to play a short set of Priest classics: a truncated version of You've Got Another Thing Coming, Breaking The Law and Living After Midnight, starring an expanded line-up including guitarist K.K. Downing – for the first time in more than 13 years – plus drummer Les Binks, who last played with Priest in 1979.
During his induction speech, Rob Halford spoke of belief in the metal community's inclusivity.
"I'm the gay guy in the band," he said. "You see, that is what heavy metal is all about. We call ourselves the heavy metal community which is all-inclusive, no matter what your sexual identity is, what you look like, the colour of your skin, the faith that you believe or don't believe in. Everybody's welcome."
