The Doobie BrothersSoundgardenJudas PriestPat Benatar and Dave Matthews Band have boosted their odds of entering the 2020 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class via the fan vote.

Those acts comprised the top five when voting closed on Friday, Jan. 10, meaning they will be included in a single "fan ballot" submitted along with other Rock Hall voters. Since that ballot is weighted equally to the over 1,000 others cast by industry professionals, it by no means guarantees they'll be inducted.

However, according to Future Rock Legends, 61% of artists who earned a spot on the fan ballot since 2013 were ultimately inducted into the Hall of Fame.

HOFfinal2020
RockHall.com
loading...

Dave Matthews Band led this year's voting with 1,005,657 votes, followed by Benatar (882,207), the Doobie Brothers (784,729), Soundgarden (722,931) and Judas Priest (675,434). Outside of the top five, Thin Lizzy wound up eighth (556,476), Motörhead came in at ninth (512,918), Todd Rundgren followed at 10th (440,898) and T. Rex ranked 12th (365,290). The full breakdown of the 8 million-plus votes is available at the Rock Hall site.

The Hall will announce the 2020 induction class on Wednesday, Jan. 15. While four of the fan vote leaders held off on making a statement, Judas Priest expressed a "huge metal thank you" Saturday on Twitter. "We made and stayed in the top five fan votes through your love and support," the band wrote. "Whatever the outcome, we are blessed having the best metal fans in the world of heavy metal!"

The 2020 class also includes MC5, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch NailsKraftwerkthe Notorious B.I.G., Rufus featuring Chaka Khan and Whitney Houston. The Hall usually inducts five acts each year, though it broke with tradition in 2019 by honoring seven.

 

The Case for All 16 2020 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Candidates

More From 94.9 WMMQ