Nirvana drummer Chad Channing reportedly getting in Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame: but should he?

When it was announced that Nirvana had won a bid to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a part of the 2014 class, it was always assumed that the band's most famous lineup - Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl - would get their names graved into music history. But what about the legendary grunge group's original drummer, Chad Channing?

According to a new report from Future Rock Legends (via SPIN), Channing will also get inducted into the Rock Hall. And, of course, this announcement doesn't come without a fair share of controversy, particularly considering that only the original lineup of KISS will be inducted, which pissed that band off enough that it won't be performing at the induction ceremony.

So, when lineups of rock bands change all the time, how is it fair that Channing gets a place in history and, say, Tommy Thayer does not?

Though Dave Grohl is Nirvana's most notable drummer, being with the band during the height of its career, for Nevermind, Unplugged in New York and more, Channing was with the band (nearly) from the beginning. Though Nirvana actually began with drummer Aaron Burckhard, it was with Channing that it recorded Bleach (1989), the very album that allowed for Nirvana to get into the Rock Hall in 2014. (The rules for eligibility are 25 years after an artist's first album dropped.)

And even though Nevermind is the album that broke Nirvana into the mainstream, Bleach has its own importance in both the Seattle grunge scene and the college rock radio heyday of the late '80s and early '90s, as the record was regularly on heavy rotation at universities across the country.

And just because Channing gets inducted doesn't mean Grohl shouldn't. In the grand scheme of things, they're both instrumentally important to Nirvana and, thus, the history of rock in general.

That doesn't mean the Rock Hall's situation with KISS is fair, far from it, but that doesn't mean Channing shouldn't also get fair recognition.

Tags

Nirvana, Dave Grohl, KISS, Rock n Roll Hall of Fame