From Continental, August 2001

You would think Joe Walsh—guitarist for the legendary James Gang, successful solo artist and member of the Eagles—would have reason to be blasé after more than three decades in the business. So why can't he contain his excitement when you ask him what he could possibly learn at Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum? "So many things," he enthuses. "I had no idea that Jimi Hendrix had such good penmanship."

Walsh knows it's only rock and roll, but he likes it. So too, obviously, do the 524,000 people who visited the hall and museum last year, making it the city's most popular tourist attraction. Let's face it: Nearly everyone under the age of 65 has been touched by what Terry Stewart, president and CEO of the hall and museum, lovingly calls "the world's most pervasive art form."

Designed by I.M. Pei, the hall and museum, on the shore of Lake Erie, just finished celebrating its fifth anniversary. (In case you're wondering, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a permanent exhibit devoted to Hall of Fame inductees and housed within the larger museum.) It's already the second-leading reason, behind seeing family and friends, that visitors come to Cleveland. Still, like the music fan who listens only to the A side of a 45, many people haven't fully explored all the possibilities. "A lot of people see us as the place where the Hall of Fame inductees are honored. They think it's going to be all about the '50s and '60s and honoring obscure artists of the past," says Michael Devlin, the hall and museum's senior director of communications. "Actually, there are a lot of new exhibits opening constantly, some focusing on noninductees, including current artists. We're like an art museum, not the Basketball Hall of Fame."

Since the museum opened five years ago, roughly 80 percent of the exhibits have changed. In just the past two years, about half of them have turned over. Today, the three featured exhibits are interactive displays about the life and music of Muddy Waters, John Lennon (see "Instant Karma") and Jimi Hendrix.

As a one-time Cleveland resident, Walsh can be excused for a little hometown tub-thumping when he says, "The city's got a very valid claim for being the birthplace of rock and roll." While working at Cleveland radio station WXEL-TV in 1951, disc jockey Alan Freed coined the term "rock and roll." The following year, Freed sponsored the Moondog Coronation Ball, generally cited as the first rock concert. Besides the James Gang, Cleveland has produced such varied artists as Tracy Chapman, Pere Ubu, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders.

Earlier this year, during three sold-out shows (one was at the hall), Walsh reunited the James Gang for their first public performances since the '70s. The concerts, he says, were "to celebrate the Hall of Fame and the great Cleveland rock scene." Walsh donated the proceeds from the shows to help fund the hall and museum's archiving process.

Talk with staff from the hall and museum and you'll hear much more about the place's mission and vision than you will about gate receipts. Although it has operated in the black every year it has been open, the hall and museum is a nonprofit organization with a mission to promote education. "We're not here to make money, but to be the foremost authority on rock and roll and to preserve and celebrate its legacy," says Devlin. Walsh's support for the archiving stems his rough calculation that "they probably have five times as much stuff in storage as on display at any given time."

Stewart intends for more of that memorabilia to reach the public. "Half of our mission statement is educating the public about the history of this art form," he says. Stewart is proud of the educational programs he has built in his two years as president and CEO, but he still hasn't found what he's looking for. Among his plans are a library/archive to serve as a focal point for scholarly study on rock and roll, a summer musical festival and a multipurpose space.

At the same time, the hall and museum will remain the site's anchors. Walsh—a hall inductee as a member of the Eagles—calls the museum "a three-story time capsule. I like to look at stuff from 20, 30 years ago and flash back to where I was at the time. It's great to plug yourself into the music that way." Walsh is also fond of artifacts from before his time. "There is this primitive recording stuff from Sun Records," he says. "You can't imagine that they made Elvis Presley records on it. It's beyond obsolete!"

Looming over Lake Erie, the Hall of Fame occupies a massive drum-shaped area on the third floor of the museum. Video monitors highlight the induction ceremonies for the 184 bands and individuals honored to date. Visitors also have access to computerized kiosks with biographical data on all of the inductees and a recording of nearly every song laid down by them. For most people, the highlight of the hall is an hour-long multimedia presentation about the inductees—including live footage, interviews and still photos—projected on three large screens. "If you're even remotely a music fan," says Devlin, "it's going to bring a lump to your throat."

Sidebar: Instant Karma

The hall and museum's most ambitous featured exhibit has also become its most popular. Lennon: His Life and Work has spoken to so many of Lennon's fans that the exhibit, originally scheduled to end in September, will now run through the end of the year.

Every phase of Lennon's life is detailed by artifacts—from preteen grade reports on up to the glasses he had on when murdered in 1980—nearly all of which have been donated by his widow. Yoko Ono. The exhibit's opening in October 1999 coincided with what would have been Lennon's 60th birthday. A wall with 60 holes containing artifacts offers insight into a man who, despite being one of the most famous people in the world, was essentially a private person. "What are the chances of seeing that stuff anywhere?" ask the Eagles' Joe Walsh about love notes to Ono and a magazine Lennon created in high school.

Lennon's music, of course, is the centerpiece. Handwritten lyrics are posted on the walls. The words to eight classic Lennon songs have been blown up into 3-foot-by-4-foot panels that double as speakers, so that visitors can simultaneously read and listen to the songs. "It's simply amazing," says Walsh.

To learn more about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, visit the site's site.

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