CLEVELAND, Ohio – The 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductions were filled with five hours of icons, legends, their lawyers, managers and thousands of loyal and apparently financially stable fans who all gathered in Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse for a night of music and speeches. They were all perhaps wondering, too, exactly whose job is it to run the teleprompter.

Before the ceremony, the plaza between the arena and Progressive Field buzzed with activity as rock fans lined up outside the arena mixed with hopeful Guardians fans. Local TV news folks talked to happy Guards fans, a cover band played just outside the ballpark and singer-songwriter Prince Tucker played tunes by the inductees. A gaggle of folks wore merch from their favorite inductees. Fan favorites the Dave Matthews Band, Ozzy Osbourne and Jimmy Buffett were all heavily represented by a few t-shirts spanning several decades and tours.

Related: 10 great highlights from the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductions (photos)

Once inside the arena, the eclectic crowd — covering a wide range of ages and sartorial choices from full-length evening gowns and suits to shorts and sweats — mingled, took photos with the provided inductee-themed backdrops and wondered aloud how long they’d have to wait to see their favorites.

Viewers watching at home on Disney+ got to see the slickly produced finished production. All the folks in the arena seemed quite happy to be playing the part of paying extras for a live television broadcast and didn’t mind being periodically — and gently — coaxed by a friendly disembodied voice telling folks to get in their darn seats before show time. While most of the stars were already in their seats before the show began, Public Enemy rapper Flava Flav, who is everywhere these days, caused a fun stir when he entered the back of the arena and headed for his seat near the front, doing his job as hype man for the crowd, pumping his fist and waiving and inducing hundreds of fans to yell “FLA-VA FL-A-A-V!”

Throughout the evening a fun game for attendees to play was watching the teleprompter while folks on stage were speaking to see who and by how much folks were drifting from their speeches. As with the in-house sound person, the teleprompter person seemed to get more attention from the speakers than they probably wanted.

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Once the show went live and Dua Lipa entered the stage — followed a by a verse and a chorus of “Believe” later by Cher herself — the energy in the room sky-rocketed with fans dancing at their seats like no one was watching and certainly not a few million Disny+ viewers. Presumably by coincidence, black seemed to be the clothing theme of the evening with Cher and Dua Lipa setting the pace, resplendent in revealing haute-coutre level black outfits as Cher bounced through “If I Could Turn Back Time” with the legendary and always steady Roots crew behind her.

One snafu the home viewers didn‘t have to suffer through was that early on in the evening, the stage mics at the podiums were simply too low, making some of the early presenters and inductees difficult to hear. The sorry sound level was frustrating enough that by the time “Miss” Dionne Warwick stepped to the mic, a few fans began shouting commands at the sound person to “Turn up the mics!” because “We can‘t hear her!” There was even one cretin who shouted directly at Miss Warwick to “speak up!” Come now, people, you don’t yell at an octogenarian music icon who just gave you a lovely rendition of “Walk On By,” to talk louder.

Unsurprisingly, Chuck D, inducting Kool & The Gang, could easily be heard as the legendary rapper and 2013 Public Enemy inductee’s speech, spoken in rhyme, got the crowd shouting the “Hey! Hey! Hey!” opening line from the band‘s classic funk jam “Hollywood Swinging.”

As a testament to Kool & the Gang’s decade-long and wide reach into pop culture, during the film, each song clip briefly became a sing-a-long. By the time the band actually took the stage, the crowd was already hyped and ready to groove to a funky medley that began with “Hollywood Swinging” before former lead singer James “J.T.” Taylor entered still sounding as smooth and cool as he did in the ‘80s for funky snippets of “Get Down On It,” “Ladies Night,” “Jungle Boogie” and of course, “Celebration,” complete with confetti dropping from the rafters.

In their induction speeches, co-founder Robert “Kool” Bell and Taylor both thanked the “Magnificent Seven,” the original band members, all of whom have passed.

“Miss” Dionne Warwick, as presenter Teyana Taylor demanded the teleprompter call her, looked very show-business casual in a turquoise sequined pantsuit and white shirt was joined by Jennifer Hudson for “I’ll Never Love This Way Again.” The big-voiced Hudson hit most of the song’s big notes, but Warwick closed the tune with a big sustained note of her own, letting us know she can still hit it when necessary. Her cozy solo take on “Walk On By,” with a few more big notes of its own, had many ladies in the room singing along.

Tom Morello, who represented his band Rage Against The Machine in 2023 with a fiery induction speech, brought the heat again on behalf of the MC5. In his relatively short homage, Morello charged up the crowd using the band‘s signature command to “Kick Out the Jams! mother——!” and tying the history of protest and the power of rock and punk to the band‘s relatively brief but highly influential existence. “They encapsulated the redemptive power of living, breathing, playing and believing in the irresistible force of truly revolutionary music,” he said emphatically before reciting the chorus to the band‘s signature song to increasing cheers from the crowd. Producers may want to start inviting him to induct someone every year as his speeches succinctly and immediately raise the energy and eruditely drive home the power of popular music’s ability to affect the culture.

Sammy Hagar looking like he just stepped off the beach in Cabo, gave a rambling but fun speech on behalf of Foreigner, taking folks way back to his days as lead singer of Montrose and forging a friendship with Foreigner mastermind songwriter-guitarist Mick Jones, whose Parkinson‘s Disease kept him from attending. Hagar ran down what he figured were the requirements for induction — hits, record sales and longevity — with Hagar joking that the band is still “filling arenas and amphitheaters and they don‘t have any original members.”

Hagar noted: “That’s how good the songs were.”

Demi Lovato, Slash and Red Hot Chili Pepper Chad Smith joined the current iteration of Foreigner for “Feels Like The First Time,” followed by Hagar and current Foreigner singer Kelly Hanson trading verses on “Hot Blooded” and slashing guitar solo from Slash. Kelly Clarkson joined original singer Lou Gramm for the band‘s massive hit “I Want To Know What Love Is,” with both digging deep for soulful vocals and Gramm, who has endured several health issues, showing he still has a little left in his vocal tank, drawing shouts of “LOOOOOOU!” from the fans.

As everyone who spoke throughout the evening seemed to, Roger Daltrey ran a bit long in presenting for Peter Frampton. Daltrey, who adroitly didn’t use the podium microphone, advocated for his buddy. “All I can say is, it’s about bloody time,” he said, before playfully rambling and reminiscing about how at the height of mid-70s “Frampton-Comes-Alive” mania, Daltrey was often mistaken for Frampton by hordes of screaming teenaged girls wherever he went.

Frampton, who suffers from inclusion body myositis, a rare autoimmune disease that causes progressive muscle weakness, took the stage to perform with his band and Nashville buddy Keith Urban. They all performed sitting down, but still rocked the house. Frampton and his band played the album cut “Baby (Something‘s Happening)” before being joined by Urban for the legendary talk-box classic ”Do You Feel Like I Do.” The crowd definitely felt it, and Frampton later reminisced about hanging out on tour with The Who’s Keith Moon and John Entwistle, who dangled him out of a third-story hotel window by his ankles as girls screamed down below. “They thought I should be closer to my fans,” Frampton joked.

The late Jimmy Buffett, who had a very strong contingent of fans in the house, received a touching solo acoustic rendition of “A Pirate Looks at 40,” from Dave Matthews, and an equally touching speech from James Taylor. Taylor called Buffett “larger than life” and “the self-made man and a poet and there won’t be another like him,” before being joined by Kenny Chesney and longtime Coral Reefers bandmember Mac McAnally for “Come Monday.”

Longtime Yellow Spring resident and A Tribe Called Quest presenter Dave Chappelle quickly played to the locals in the crowd opening with a crowd-baiting “O-H!” and drawing the reflexive “I-O!” He also perfectly drew a big hand from fans when he said of the stage mics “this mic sucks!

Chappelle‘s speech deftly outlined ATCQ’s bond and game-changing and influential place in the pantheon of hip-hop and pop music. But the assembled group members speeches were literal showstoppers. Jarobi White appeared to have prepared absolutely nothing and Q-Tip told a few too many stories at a too slow pace. (Ali Shaheed Muhammad couldn’t make it.) The segment was saved by the late Malik ”Phife Dawg” Taylor‘s father, Walt, who commandeered the mic and closed out the group‘s way-over-time segment by introducing Phife‘s mother and wife and seemingly shooting his proverbial shot at Cher and Warwick. “Cher?” he said, pointing and looking in her direction at the front tables, “I got you, babe,” followed smoothly by, “Hey, I‘m headed to San Jose, but I don’t have a GPS, so Miss Warwick, I need your help,” drawing hoots, cheers and re-energizing the tiring crowd a bit.

The ATCQ tribute performance featured Queen Latifah, De La Soul’s Posdnuos, Common, and Busta Rhymes, with Rhymes reviving both his star-making verses from the original version of the classic posse cut “Scenario” and the “7 MC’s remix” with considerable gusto.

Collaborators Method Man and Dr. Dre presented for Mary J. Blige, who was the only performer of the evening to revive the dry ice treatment as she entered on a mini catwalk in a big complicated black leather coat under which she wore an equally complicated and bejeweled short suit. Blige’s set, featuring singers Lucky Daye and Ella Mai, on truncated versions of “My Life,” and “Love No Limit,” respectively was rounded out by a solo “Family Affair.”

Blige’s speech was filled with gratitude, perseverance and encouraging words for women and anyone going through tough times.

Jack Black delivered a perfectly profane and intense speech before Ozzy Osbourne. One of the night’s most popular acts, Osbourne was wheeled out in a black throne. He did everyone in the room a favor by declaring he wasn‘t going to offer up a “monologue” and allowed the all-star tribute band to take matters from there. Tool’s Maynard James Keenan and Wolfgang Van Halen rocked “Crazy Train,” Zakk Wylde and Jelly Roll warbled through “Mama, I‘m Coming Home“ and Billy Idol and his guitarist Steve Stevens took on ”No More Tears,” a bit above Idol’s familiar vocal range.

Actress Julia Roberts welcomed her friends and restated her devotion to fan vote favorites, the Dave Matthews Band, with a speech aimed at fans familiar with the band members and its history.

“Everybody loves (drummer, co-founder) Carter (Beauford),” she said gleefully while talking about the original band members. Her true fandom was evident in her warm words. The DMB ran through a tight set of “Ants Marching,” “Crash Into Me,” “So Much to Say,” and “Too Much,” complete with Matthews doing his familiar fleet-feet two-steps and dance moves.

Only Matthews spoke (yep, it was long), shouting out seemingly everyone who had ever been in or helped the band in any significant way. The DMB closed out the five-plus hour television show with a shortened take on The Talking Heads (Class of 2002) “Burning Down the House,” sending tired fans out into the night to once again co-mingle with disappointed Guardians fans, who had just witnessed the New York Yankees beat the home team and clinch a spot in the World Series.