Cher once had a “love-hate relationship” with the Rock Hall of Fame, but is now glad “they finally got to me”

Newly minted Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Cher previously had some choice words for the organization because she kept getting overlooked for induction. And while she doesn’t take back what she said, she’s certainly singing a different tune now.

“I said something once, but I meant it,” she told ABC News on the red carpet at the Oct. 19 induction ceremony in Cleveland. “And now it’s a little bit different. I’m feeling a little bit more love, you know? And they finally got to me, y’know? I don’t know what I had to do, but finally they got to me.” 

Backstage at the ceremony, Cher said she was vocal about her feelings towards the Rock Hall in the past because she’d had a “love-hate relationship” with the organization.

“It was like, I thought, ‘What do I have to do to f****** do,’ you know, ‘to be inducted into this place?’” she said.  But now, she added ” “I can say that I’m happy that I’m in … because if I didn’t feel like it, I wouldn’t say it.”

And Cher told ABC News that one thing that changed her mind about was being associated with all her fellow musicians who are part of the Hall..

“It’s the people I’m being honored with and the people who’ve already been honored,” she says. “That’s the part that makes me feel good.”

And now that Cher’s in as a solo artist, she said the next step would for her and her late ex-husband and singing partner, Sonny Bono, to be recognized for the music they made as Sonny & Cher.

“I think that we deserve it,” she said backstage. “Even if we weren’t exactly rock and roll, we represented music. We were kind of corny, but we were very avant-garde for what was happening at the time, y’know?”