Phil Collins, Billy Idol inducted in Hall of Fame

Phil Collins on Saturday night gave a tearful acceptance speech and got an electrifying tribute from Cynthia Erivo, Oprah Winfrey inducted the late Luther Vandross, the crowd yelled along with Billy Idol and the Wu-Tang Clan crowded the stage for a rowdy celebration at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Queen Latifah, Oasis, MC Lyte, Sade, Joy Division/New Order and Iron Maiden were also inducted along with producer Rick Rubin, who got a long-bearded tribute from the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

U2 was the night’s surprise opener, playing their new single Silencio while surrounded by dancers in riot squad gear with helmets and shields.

From left, Flea, Chad Smith, Anthony Kiedis and John Frusciante of The Red Hot Chili Peppers perform dressed as producer Rick Rubin during the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Photo: AP

Run DMC and Aerosmith were the surprise closers with a loud jam of Walk This Way, their 1986 classic collaboration, produced by Rubin, that brought the merger of rock and rap to a new level.

Collins, whose mobility issues and other health problems kept him from performing, took the stage slowly using a pair of canes and cried at a huge ovation from a crowd that included his daughter, actor Lily Collins.

Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker inducted Collins and praised him for his unprecedented dual stardom as a drummer and a hit-making pop singer in the 1980s.

Travis Barker, right, introduces inductee Phil Collins during the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Photo: AP

“I grew up just wanting to play the drums,” Collins said. “Everything else has been a really happy accident. I can’t believe, when I look back, how life has gone.”

Barker said Collins’ song In the Air Tonight gave the world “arguably the most badass drum fill of all time.”

Minutes later, Barker played that drum fill as Erivo gave a slowed-down, epic rendition of the song with a wailing crescendo that brought the crowd to its feet.

Billy Idol, right, and Steve Stevens perform during the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Photo: Reuters

Collins was already in the hall as a member of Genesis, but now gets the solo honor.

The crowd leapt to its feet and shouted along with White Wedding during the induction of Idol — one of the few artists ticket buyers knew for sure would show up and perform.

He was inducted along with his longtime guitarist Steve Stevens by No Doubt members Tony Kanal and Gwen Stefani, who joined Idol for a duet on Eyes Without a Face.

“I say to all the young people out there who can barely tune a guitar and work a sampler: ‘Now it’s your turn,’” Idol said.

He ended with: “And now, I’m gonna party with the Wu-Tang Clan.”

Winfrey said with relish that Vandross was “the maestro of the love song” and said he was once correctly named “the top artist that people make love to.”

Vandross, an R&B singer with a velvet voice, was one of the definitive singers of the 1980s and 1990s. He died in 2005.

“Luther Vandross sang with such passion and soul it could reach something deep inside that you didn’t even know needed to be reached,” Winfrey said.

Wu-Tang Clan, the epic hip-hop collective from New York’s Staten Island, filled the stage with its 10 current members, giving a memorable acceptance speech and a performance, backed by a big jazz band, that had the crowd on its feet and dancing.

“Wu-Tang rewrote the rules of hip-hop and did it without a big machine behind them,” said comedian Chris Rock, who inducted them.

“We took Staten Island to the world,” the group’s leader RZA said. “We had a desire to conquer.”

MC Lyte, a trailblazing female rapper starting in the late 1980s, was the first artist inducted, with hip-hop star Remy Ma doing the honors and calling her “one of the first women in hip-hop to make sure there was room for the rest of us.”

Her contemporary and fellow groundbreaker Latifah was inducted later in the evening by Megan Thee Stallion, who said Latifah “taught us to recognize royalty within ourselves.”

Latifah said for a long time, she would not have believed this night was possible.

“It’s difficult enough being a woman in hip-hop, let alone being a hip-hopper in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” she said.

Latifah and MC Lyte then took the stage together to perform a medley of their hits.

Latifah and Lyte entered the hall as recipients of the Early Influence Award along with posthumous inductees Gram Parsons, Fela Kuti and Celia Cruz, who were all inducted via video tribute.

Legendary rock, hip-hop and country producer Rubin accepted his induction with a one-sentence acceptance speech.

“You can’t kill rock ’n’ roll,” he said, and left the stage.

Longtime Hall-of-Famer Neil Young inducted Rubin, making fun of his tendency to work while lying barefoot on the couch and praising him for the unmatched care he takes with his artists, including the Beastie Boys, Run DMC, Johnny Cash, the Chicks and Adele.

Oasis, the youngest of the inductees, did not show up. Guitarist Noel Gallagher is playing a gig back home in the UK, and his little brother, Liam Gallagher, just did not want to come.

“Anybody surprised they didn’t show up?” asked actor and Oasis superfan Bob Odenkirk, who inducted them. “It would’ve been out of character if they had. I would’ve been worried about them.”

Iron Maiden, the quintessential British heavy metal band of the 1980s, opted to stay on tour in Australia.

“They aren’t even here tonight, because they’re rocking a world tour, as they have done for the last 50 years,” said actor Jack Black during their induction.

A supergroup featuring members of Metallica, Rage Against the Machine and St Vincent played The Trooper in tribute.

Joy Division, a dark and seminal post-punk band, and New Order, which was formed by its members after singer Ian Curtis died in 1980, got a joint induction.

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails inducted them, saying Joy Division’s members were “the authors of an unbreakable archetype.”

Only the bassist for both bands, Peter Hook, appeared at the ceremony. He performed Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart and New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle, with Deftones and singer Lauren Mayberry of the band Chvrches.

Hook said the young musicians “made an old man very happy.”

He has had long-running feuds with his fellow bandmates and, other than Curtis, didn’t mention any of them in his acceptance.