Jane’s Addiction are among the nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's class of 2017 and, if Tom Morello gets his way, they’d be inducted. Today, the Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave/Prophets of Rage guitarist wrote an article that laid out the case for them.

It was printed at Billboard, where Morello called them the “Sex Pistols of the Alternative Nation.” He goes on to describe how, when he moved to Los Angeles in the mid-‘80s, the scene was dominated by hair metal. “The bands playing the Sunset Strip all looked the same, sounded the same, pouted the same,” he wrote. Then he was given a bootleg cassette of theirs and it “ blew my mind” and ”jolted the axis of my understanding of rock music.”

“I had never heard anything like it. It was like a punk rock Led Zeppelin,” he continued. “Jane’s provided all the testosterone-fueled guitar riffage that my suburban upbringing required but mixed it with gorgeous acoustic songs and an underground artistry that was completely original and completely awesome. Savage but beautiful. Riff-heavy but smart.”

Morello praised them as possibly the best band to come out of Los Angeles, because of the way their sound reflected the city. ‘You can hear the violence, the drugs, the beauty, the ocean, the hope, smog, fear and redemptive power of Los Angeles in Jane’s music,” he added.

And while he cites all four members for their musicianship, he shows a particular kinship with guitarist Dave Navarro for his “shirtless power riffing and wild astral solos [that] gave metal heads like myself a reason to love the band and challenged indie rock snobs to deal with the presence of an undeniably great rock guitarist in an underground band.”

But above all, it’s singer Perry Farrell who warrants the most merit. It’s not just his lyrics and the versatility of his singing, but also how he “single-handedly forged the Lollapalooza Nation, smashing barriers between genres, bringing the fringe into the mainstream, and allowing rockers and rappers to share the same stage for the first time.”

The Hall of Fame traditionally announces its annual inductees in mid-December. Other indie and alternative acts on the shortlist for induction this year include Pearl Jam, Bad Brains and Depeche Mode.

25 Artists Who Should Be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

More From Diffuser.fm