Collecting the Artifacts

Other than, Why is the Hall of Fame in Cleveland, the questions I am most frequently asked by visitors are: Where do you get all the stuff? How do you get it? And, Doesn’t the Hard Rock Café already have everything?

Of course, the stuff they are referring to includes the guitars, costumes, handwritten lyrics, notes, correspondence and other artifacts that we exhibit here at the Hall of Fame. About 90 percent of the artifacts in our collection come directly from the artists themselves, their families or their managers. And, unlike the Hard Rock and other commercial enterprises, we don’t, for the most part, buy artifacts. Nearly everything we have is either a gift or a long-term loan.

In the seven years in which we have been collecting for the Museum, several patterns have become apparent. I’ve found, for example, that there’s usually one member of a band who is a pack rat, or to put it another way, who has the collectors’ mentality. For example, in U2, drummer Larry Mullen Jr. is the collector. From the time U2 first formed (as the Larry Mullen Band) back in a Dublin high school, he has been stockpiling everything from the first U2 T-shirt (now on exhibit at the Hall of Fame) to posters, backstage passes, notes from band members, etc. He virtually has a house full of U2 memorabilia.

Mothers are another great source of artifacts. After all, many artists don’t necessarily want to share their grade-school report cards with the public. But moms don’t mind. Margaret Everly, the mother of the Everly Brothers, has hung onto everything from Don and Phil’s childhood through their days as major stars of the late Fifties and early Sixties. As a result, we were able to put together a collection that includes report cards (Phil did very well, and I’ll leave it at that), tap shoes (from when they took lessons as young boys), their first song lyric (“R-A-D-I-O,” from 1948), promotional materials for their recordings, and various costumes that were worn onstage and on record covers.

More recently, James Taylor’s mother loaned the Hall of Fame a terrific collection of materials, including James’ first guitar, his second-grade report card, a picture of him with the Easter Bunny (proving once and for all that there is an Easter Bunny), early self-portraits and song lyrics. Jim Morrison’s parents donated one of our most complete and most moving collections, Keith Moon’s mother donated some great memorabilia and we’ve even acquired some artifacts from the parents of some of today’s teen stars.

Then there are the bands that have systematically organized their artifacts over the years. ZZ Top is one of the best examples of that. When I visited their warehouse in their home state of Texas, it was like visiting a ZZ Top department store. In one room, the clothing department, there were several racks of stage costumes; in another room, there were about 50 guitars displayed on stands; in yet another room, there were stage props from several of the band’s tours. The band generously gave me my choice of artifacts, and it was like being a kid in a candy store.

At other times, our success is based on getting to the right person in a group’s organization. In the case of the Rolling Stones, that person was Alan Dunn, who started out as Brian Jones’ roadie and has worked with the group ever since. Alan is a collector himself and a big fan of the Hall of Fame. Even when the Stones were on the road, Alan conscientiously helped put together the collection that now makes up our exhibit.

There are many other routes to collecting success, but one thing is certain: There are still a lot of historic artifacts out there to be had. And my staff and I spend most of our days trying to bring them to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.