Cher explains her 'love-hate relationship' with Rock & Roll Hall of Fame after induction

Noting sarcastically that answering questions is “my favorite thing to do,” Cher answered some of the press backstage at the 2024 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday (October 19).

After taking on the Rock Hall during her speech for waiting 35 years to induct her after becoming eligible, Cher admits that, “I have a kind of love-hate relationship [with the Rock Hall]for I thought, “What must the king do, you know, to get into this place?” What do you have to do to be a part of it?'

Although she was tempted to tell David Geffen, who she said wrote a letter to the Hall of Fame Foundation on her behalf, “please take it back,” Cher said she was ultimately happy with the way things turned out . “I felt good. I can say I'm happy to be in,” she says. “If I didn't [think] I wouldn't be here.”

Reflecting on a 60-year career that dates back to working with her late ex-husband Sonny Bono and sessions with Phil Spector's Wrecking Crew, the singer said she struggles with thoughts of legacy. “I [didn’t] to have perspective, exactly — I was just busy living my life, so I didn't like to think about it at all,” she says. “I thought about it minute by minute, thing by thing. I thought of myself as a bumper car and when I hit a road, I just backed up and turned in a different direction, because I wasn't going to stop doing what I loved.”

And what about Sonny & Cher making it to the Rock Hall one day? “I think we deserve it,” says Cher Bulletin board. “Even if we weren't exactly rock and roll, we represented the music. I know it's not that… we were polite, but we were very avant garde for what was going on at the time, so, I don't know. I didn't expect to get in. I just thought, 'They're never going to let you in, b-h.'”

During her speech, Cher made sure to send a message to all the women watching around the world: “The one thing I've never done, is I never give up,” she explained. “And I talk to the women, okay… we're down and out, but we keep trying, and we keep going and we're somebody. We are special.”