This year’s ARIA Hall of Fame inductees are You Am I.
The ‘90s indie rock legends will be inducted during the 2025 ARIAs, presented Wednesday, November 19th at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion, on Gadigal land.
Formed in Sydney in the late ’80s, with Tim Rogers at the mic alongside bandmates Andy Kent, David Lane and Rusty Hopkinson, You Am I captured the zeitgeist.
As triple j and Big Day Out went national, their hooky, indie rock sound was medicine for young music fans.
You Am I played the first BDO out show in Sydney back in 1992, were the inaugural winners of the Best Independent Release category at the ARIA Awards for their 1993 debut album Sound as Ever, and they’ve gone on to win 10 ARIA Awards from 31 nominations.
“It’s a very lovely honour. We’re chuffed, it’s safe to say,” Hopkinson tells The Music Network. “It’s a very big honour and it’s nice, you know, at our age. It’s nice to be asked to do anything, let alone be inducted into the Hall of Fame.”
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You Am I are elevated into the Hall of Fame as the lads reunite for a major national tour to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Hi Fi Way, which dropped February 20th, 1995.
That album went to No. 1 on the ARIA Chart and started a streak which included Hourly, Daily (1996) and #4 Record (1998). With that effort, You Am I was the first Australian band to debut three consecutive albums atop the national tally.
All told, the group has released 11 studio albums, most recently 2021’s The Lives of Others, which peaked at No. 2 on the ARIA Chart.
Earlier this year, You Am I released their live album Someone Else’s Crowd for the very first time on vinyl, a special treat for Record Store Day Australia.
“We are bemused, flattered and surprised to be asked to sit at the parents table,” comments Rogers, in a statement announcing their Hall of Fame induction. “The artists in the Hall have had musical adventures of grandeur and righteous acclaim. Our trail of desperation seems more haphazard and with less dazzle. Yet we are giddy and grateful to feel recognition from the music community. We’ll see you out there on the road of endless possibilities.”
The rockers will tour right up to the 39th edition of the ARIA Awards, a partnership with Spotify. You Am I should be lean and tight from the road, and will continue the tradition of performing during the ARIAs’ Hall of Fame segment.
“We haven’t actually solidified anything yet,” Hopkinson explains. “There’s a sort of window of opportunity for us to pull out something. So year, we’ll figure something out.”
The ARIA Awards will return to 10 and stream live on Paramount+.
“Australia has witnessed You Am I shape the course of modern rock music with their unmistakable sound, honed by live shows across the length and breadth of the country and beyond,” comments ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd in a statement.
Next year, in 2026, the ARIA Awards will celebrate its 40th anniversary with a standalone for the Hall of Fame, when five acts will head the class.
