Dave Matthews, Pat Benatar Lead as Rock Hall Fan Vote Nears End
With one week to go in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's fan vote, the Dave Matthews Band have a commanding lead.
As of earlier today, they've received 894,847 votes, nearly 100,000 more than second-place Pat Benatar (799,414). The rest of the Top 5 consists of the Doobie Brothers (714,102), Soundgarden (656,270) and Judas Priest (614,829). It marks a big push in voting by Matthews' fans: The band wasn't even in the Top 5 during the first few days when voting began in October. Back then, Benatar and the Doobie Brothers were in the first two positions.
You can see the current standings at the Rock Hall's website.
The five acts that receive the most amount of votes will make up one ballot that helps determine entry into the Rock Hall. Even though the fan ballot is given equal weight to the more than 1,000 ballots cast by industry professionals, the top vote-getter has been inducted every year since fan voting began in 2012.
The vote totals for other current nominees include Whitney Houston (at 544,705), Depeche Mode (513,950), Thin Lizzy (507,042), Motorhead (463,711), Todd Rundgren (403,196), Nine Inch Nails (352,207), T. Rex (333,376), the Notorious B.I.G. (254,841), Kraftwerk (151,070), Rufus featuring Chaka Khan (150,639) and MC5 (147,303).
You can vote once per day, either at the Rock Hall's website or by typing either "Rock Hall Fan Vote" or "Vote" and the artist's name into Google. Voting concludes at 11:59PM on Jan. 10; winners will be announced shortly after. The induction ceremony will take place on May 2 at Cleveland's Public Auditorium.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2020 Nominees