San Diego’s Andra Day, Ann Wilson to be featured at 2018 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductions

San Diego will be well-represented when the 33rd annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony is held April 14 at Public Auditorium in Cleveland.

An edited version of the inductions will exclusively premiere on HBO on May 5 at 8 p.m. EST and PST.

San Diego native Ann Wilson, who was herself inducted in 2013 as a member of the band Heart, will induct the Moody Blues.

Fellow San Diego-bred singer Andra Day, a 2018 Best Song Oscar nominee, will perform at the inductions in honor of the late jazz and blues vocal giant Nina Simone.

Day and Wilson will be in high-profile company.

Fellow 2018 Best Song Oscar nominee Mary J. Blige, who was also up for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar this year, will induct Nina Simone. (She and Day both performed during this year’s Oscars telecast.)

Brandon Flowers, the singer in The Killers, will induct The Cars.

Pioneering radio shock-jock Howard Stern will induct Bon Jovi.

And Alabama Shakes’ singer-guitarist Brittany Howard will induct pioneering gospel singer-guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Howard also seems like an ideal candidate to perform a musical tribute to Tharpe, one of her major musical influences, but it appears the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction organizers have someone else in mind.

Longtime Bruce Springsteen collaborator and former “The Sopranos” TV co-star Steven Van Zandt is slated to appear as a special guest at the induction ceremony, although in what capacity has not yet been disclosed.

It has yet to be announced who will induct Dire Straits, or if any iteration of that long-dormant English band will perform at the April 14 ceremony in Cleveland.

By coincidence, DS Legacy, a Dire Straits tribute band that features several former touring members of that English band, is set to perform at late April’s Fronterizo Fest 2018 at Tijuana’s Estadio Caliente. The festival will be headlined by the Scorpions, Megadeth and Suicidal Tendencies.

Also by coincidence, Day and the Killers both performed last September in New York’s Central Park as part of the annual Global Citizen Festival. Day’s chilling version of “Strange Fruit” — which was recorded in 1939 by Billie Holiday — was a highlight of the concert.

And, in yet another coincidence, Day and Wilson are both scheduled to perform in San Diego later this year.

Wilson is part of the July 22 triple-bill at Mattress Firm Amphitheatre, where she will perform with fellow Rock Hall inductee Jeff Beck and former Free and Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers.

Two months later, exactly, Day will headline the Old Globe Theatre’s annual gala on Sept. 22.

george.varga@sduniontribune.com

Twitter @georgevarga

UPDATES:

12:50 p.m.: Andra Day will perform in honor of Nina Simone, not Billie Holiday, at the 2018 Rock and roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.