Iron Maiden was recently announced as a 2026 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, but the band will not be attending the ceremony in November.
According to a new statement from their manager, Rod Smallwood, the reasoning is logistical and favours their fans.
“As the most observant have already noticed, the band will be on tour in Australia around the November date of the Induction ceremony for the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in Los Angeles,” he told Billboard in an email. “In accepting, Iron Maiden made it very clear to the R&R HoF that the fans always come first and that the shows will of course go on.”
However, Smallwood’s statement does not explicitly rule out somebody from the Iron Maiden camp making an appearance.
Iron Maiden is scheduled to play concerts in Australia on November 13 and November 15, directly bookending the Rock Hall ceremony in a way that would make attendance at the event almost impossible.
The main point of Smallwood’s statement is that those with tickets to the aforementioned Iron Maiden concerts should not worry about any shows being cancelled.
“We would like to assure all our fans in Australasia that the Australian and New Zealand dates will remain unaffected,” Smallwood further wrote, adding,, “and we look forward to bringing the Run For Your Lives Tour to them on the penultimate stop of our 50th anniversary celebrations.”
This echos a statement by the band that was posted on social media earlier this week on their social media when the inductees were first announced.
“We’d like to thank the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for including us (and former members who were all part of our story) in the 2026 roll call of inductees,” it read. “Iron Maiden have always been about our relationship with our fans above anything else, including awards and industry accolades. However, having said that, it’s always nice to be recognized and honored for any achievements within the music industry too!”
In addition to Iron Maiden, the following artists will be inducted, Phil Collins, Billy Idol, Joy Division/New Order, Oasis, Sade, Luther Vandross and Wu-Tang Clan.
