BROOKLYN, New York – Kate Bush was a gracious and appreciative no show, as was Al Kooper, and 75 percent of Rage Against The Machine, but there was plenty of action on stage at the 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at The Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Friday night.

The inductees welcomed into the Rock as Performers were Willie Nelson, Missy Elliott, Sheryl Crow, Kate Bush, the late George Michael, Rage Against the Machine and The Spinners. The Musical Excellence honorees were Chaka Khan, Al Kooper and Bernie Taupin. Recognized for their Music Excellence influential figures DJ Kool Herc and the late guitarist Link Wray.

Though there were tickets available for the show shortly before the start time and there were a few empty sections way up in the nosebleeds, most of the Barclays seats were filled with energetic music lovers who surely came to see their favorites, but vociferously showed appreciation for all the inductees throughout the evening.

Perhaps due in part to the ceremony being broadcast live on Disney+, the pace of the ceremony was fast. Longtime ceremony watchers may recall the old days when there would occasionally be lengthy gaps between the end of one inductee’s segment and the next. But there was little dawdling, and no downtime whatsoever between inductees, because as each artist’s last note or words faded in the arena, the title card for the next artist was immediately displayed and whatever set changes were necessary were done swiftly and quietly on the darkened stage by the stage crew.

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Sheryl Crow kicked it all off with a duet of “If It Makes You Happy,” featuring young admirer pop star Olivia Rodrigo, recreating their unplugged duet of the hit song at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe in September. The pair of singer-songwriters who have expressed their mutual admiration for each other’s work, gave the immediately standing crowd a grooving rendition of the tune before actress Laura Dern praised her “all-around badass rockstar bestie. Crow then sang with one of her heroes (she’d sing another one later), Stevie Nicks who gently harmonized with Crow on a subtle “Strong Enough.” before Peter Frampton, who was Crow’s first rock concert as a teenager in the ‘70s, entered to add some hard-to-hear (in the arena) guitar magic to “Everyday is a Winding Road” with plenty of sing-a-long help from the crowd.

Dern’s speech was indicative of all the evening’s presenters, who clearly weren’t just chosen because they were fans and/current pop stars as in some years past. All had personal relationships with the inductees — giving their speeches added personal and emotional gravitas.

Rapper LL Cool J, inducted in 2022 in ceremonies in Cleveland, gave a heartfelt speech for DJ Kool Herc, who is officially credited with kicking off hip-hop culture along with his sister at their fundraising party in the Bronx in August of 1973.

LL called it one of the “proudest moments of my life” to welcome Herc into the hallowed hall of rock. Herc, born William Campbell, needed help to the stage from his sister and was so overcome with emotion that he apologized, drawing supportive shouts of “We love you!” and “Thank You!” from the standing crowd. He cried through his brief speech, repeatedly saying he had “tears in my eyes” and shouting out artists and influential figures, including James Brown, late singer-songwriter Baby Huey, Marcus Garvey and Harry Belafonte, as well as offering props to his sister Cindy for whom the culture changing party was thrown.

Singer-songwriter Jazmine Sullivan also got emotional and had to take a few breaths during her induction of Chaka Khan with a very personal story of the former Rufus singer being her cancer-stricken mother’s favorite artist and how much it meant to her and her now late mother when Khan called her on a Zoom call.

Khan was joined by acolytes and admirers Common who took the place of Melle Mel on the intro to a truncated “I Feel For You” before H.E.R. took the stage for a slightly sloppy rendition of “Ain’t Nobody.” The pair traded verses on the classic R&B slow jam, “Sweet Thing,” and then Sia, with her colorful helmet-sized bob and dizzying outfit, joined for “I’m Every Woman.” Khan’s video tribute also had the former first lady, Michell Obama, Prince, Grace Jones and a jocular Joni Mitchell who called Khan “the GOAT.” Khan spent much of her speech praising Sullivan and her former bandmates in Rufus, including guitarist Tony Maiden, whom she brought along to perform.

Andrew Ridgely the self-described “less attractive” half of Wham! was met with a big hosanna from the arena, as he prepared to induct his former bandmate and lifelong friend and bandmate “Yog,” better known as singer-songwriter-producer George Michael. Later, Michael was celebrated in a musical tribute that included R&B/pop singer Miguel hitting the high notes in “Careless Whisper,” Adam Levine delivering a peppy “Faith” and Carrie Underwood hitting all the emotional beats in the ballad “One More Try.”

Of the evening’s many highlights came during the segment for the legendary vocal group The Spinners. They were represented by all six members of New Edition, looking quite suave in mauve suits, and they got the crowd up and dancing in their seats with a tight three-song set of “Could It Be I’m Falling In Love,” “I’ll Be Around” and a too short “Rubberband Man,” featuring a troop of ‘70s style “Soul Train” dancers, bumping and hustling behind them.

Kate Bush was unable to attend, but in her stead, Outkast’s Big Boi a long-time and vocal fan of Bush’s music fought through what appeared to be a slow-scrolling teleprompter (a few other inductors seemed to have similar issues) and talked about listening to “Running Up That Hill” while riding his bike to middle school. He praised her uniqueness, calling her both hip-hop and rock ‘n’ roll.

St. Vincent, who wowed fans with her version of Nirvana’s “Lithium” at the 2014 ceremony, returned for a respectful rendition of Bush’s recently revived hit song (thank you Netflix and “Stranger Things”), sounding very much like the original recording.

An admittedly and visibly nervous Dave Matthews played a subdued solo version of Wille Nelson’s ”Funny How Time Slips Away,” before offering a humorous and slightly political speech of his adventures with Nelson, which included smoking so much weed with Willie that he thought he might “forget to breath” as well as incorporating championing the Nelson co-founded Farm Aid benefit concert series.

Nelson himself seated at center stage, performed a jaunty “Whisky River” with fan Chris Stapleton. Crow returned to the stage for a lovely take on “Crazy” before Matthews joined for a sing-a-long “On The Road Again.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the evening came from Link Wray’s segment. While neither the late Don Cornelius nor the absent Al Kooper received musical tributes, following Wray’s video tribute none other than Jimmy Page (featured in the video) appeared on stage with his signature cherry red, double-neck Gibson guitar to play Wray’s game-changing instrumental, “Rumble,” to a surprised crowd.

Completely unsurprising was Elton John inducting his friend and songwriting partner Bernie Taupin. The lyrical half of the Taupin-John team gave an erudite speech praising his influences, mostly early rock n’ rollers such as Little Richard and seminal American bluesmen and stumped for Merle Haggard’s inclusion in the Rock Hall.

Taupin was also the only artist to reference Rolling Stone magazine founder and former Rock Hall honcho Jann Wenner, who was dismissed from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation board this year after making sexist and racist comments in an interview with the New York Times. Wenner told the Times that he didn’t include any women or artists of color in his book of interviews, “The Masters,” because he couldn’t find one articulate enough to qualify.

Taupin said he was proud to be inducted alongside “profoundly ARTICULATE women” and “ARTICULATE Black artists” drawing a big hand and cheers from the audience. John put a nice bow on Taupin’s induction with a solo piano version of “Tiny Dancer,” with crowd members mouthing the words with him. John also teased a new album of songs co-written with Taupin that he said was going to “surprise the s— out of you. It’s full of youth. It’s full of vitality,” John said.

The montage of recently deceased artists and music industry folks was punctuated with a soulful version of The Band’s “The Weight” featuring Stapleton, Crow, John and Brittany Howard trading verses with the crowd joining in on the familiar chorus.

Actor and rapper Ice-T inducted Rage Against The Machine with a story about going to see the band early in their career for a possible opening slot on a tour for his controversial rap-rock band Body Count. He reminded folks that he had “made a few records” in his day and he that he definitely was only a cop on TV. Then he gave Rage credit for the best rock lyric of all time that ends with “I won’t do what you tell me.”

Only innovative guitarist Tom Morello showed up on his band’s behalf, but he gave a speech as fiery, propulsive and socio-political as Rage’s music, repeatedly drawing cheers and exclamations from the crowd. “It’s time to change the world brothers and sisters or at a minimum, you stir up a s***load of trouble!” he said before ending with word from his 100-year-old mother, “History like music, is not something that happens, it’s something you make.”

With the crowd fully riled up, only Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott, who received some of the biggest cheers every time she was mentioned throughout the evening, could follow. After her longtime friend Queen Latifah praised her fearless, unique and lengthy career as a star, songwriter and producer, Elliott turned the entire stag — and by extension the entire arena through the use of LED bracelets that were handed out to ticket holders — into a brief but action-packed Missy Elliott concert.

She ran through several of her hits, including “Work It” and “Supa Dupa Fly,” backed by a cadre of shaking and shimmying dancers, a collage of seizure-inducing videos and a volcanic kaleidoscope of colored lighting. Elliott, with no guests supporting her, commanded the stage even when she left it to briefly walk the crowd on the floor of the arena.

In her speech, Elliott championed the many women emcees who inspired her as well as her fellow Virginian, super producer and friend Timbaland, and her mother who was seeing her perform for the first time. Elliott shed a few tears near the end of her speech saying how “it felt like it was so far out of reach being from the hip-hop world.”

There was no end-of-the-night jam as with past ceremonies, which was fine because Elliot’s performance didn’t leave room or energy for anyone else.

As the crowd left the arena, many folks seemed fully spent while talking about everything and everyone they just saw and heard, rattling off the names of the gaggle of artists who crossed the stage and breathlessly discussing their favorite and special moments from an evening filled with many such moments.

The 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony is available now on Disney+ for on-demand streaming. ABC will air a performance and highlights special on New Year’s Day.