The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame made the correct decision in 2025, Phishheads. Phish was not inducted last year, even though they led the fan vote. That is partly because fan votes are collected into one ballot that is grouped with more than 1,200 other ballots. Only worthy artists are inducted.
Phish is not a worthy artist. That doesn't mean the band makes bad music; they don't. It's, well...fine. But lots of artists have made decent music and not been inducted into the Rock Hall. The museum should hold out for transformative and elite artists, of which Phish is neither.
After not making the mistake of inducting Phish in 2025, the band didn't even make the 2026 ballot. The Rock Hall must have seen how Phishheads reacted online last year and thought, "We aren't going through that again."
Phish not among the 2026 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominees
The band tours a lot, of course, has helped change the ways music festivals are held, and has put out a bunch of albums that don't sell well. Phish has almost zero impactful global presence. Have Trey Anastasio and his mates hired people from nations beyond the borders of the United States? Yes. Do fans exist in other countries? Sure, but not at a massive level.
This can be proven by the fact that nearly all of the band's tour dates in the past 28 years have been held in the United States. There is the random festival in Mexico and a handful of dates in Canada, but mostly, the group plays where the vast majority of its fans are: The United States. It's just good business.
Phish has had three top-10 albums in the United States, none higher than No. 7. Their last two records haven't reached higher than No. 69 on the Billboard 200. The group has never had an album chart in Europe. Their musical reach doesn't extend much past the borders of the US.
Again, this isn't to say Phish makes bad music. They don't. They create easy-sounding tunes that can be turned into long jams that Phishheads enjoy, and those fans have a right to enjoy the music. But because they love their favorite band doesn't mean the rest of the world does or should.
Nothing Phish has done is worthy of being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Changing how festivals are structured? Great, but that doesn't make them Hall worthy. Only being impactfully popular in one country doesn't either. The 2026 Rock Hall ballot did things the right way by not having Phish on the list.