Cleveland Rock And Roll

Since I wrote my story on the Rock Hall last month (click here if you missed it) I’ve received a ton of emails, good and bad. Some of them calling me out for not being loyal and a few of them actually accused me of singularly destroying what the Rock Hall means to Cleveland. Really…. I am destroying the basic fabric of the Rock Hall’s identity. I especially loved the one where he accused me of helping New York to get the Rock Hall to move there. I don’t care when someone disagrees with me, that’s good it creates a dialogue but wow some of you people need a reality check.

The majority of the emails I received were in support of the story and one I got from someone I respect at the Rock Hall (they asked me not to disclose who they were for obvious reasons) told me “you hit it right on the head”. Since the story was published last month (and rerun in various rock sites, blogs and print media) I’ve run into a lot of people at various events that were there at the beginning and several were the movers and shakers that got the hall here in the first place. If you think my story was stinging, you should here what comes out of their mouths about how they feel the Rock Hall is being run now. The one underling thread that still rings true with each and every one of these people is the Rock Hall is important to Cleveland and it’s economy, but things have to change. I don’t argue that at all.

Since the story ran I have received two emails from the Rock Hall that made me think “Wow, maybe they are waking up.”

The first one I received was one sent out to all of the membership. Just their standard monthly, “hey look at us, look at what we got coming” email. I usually get this email and hit the delete button before ever looking at it. What caught my eye was the subject line “Get Involved: We Want To Hear From You” and they put a survey in the email wanting input from their membership. My first thought was “Okay, maybe they really want to fix these problems, good for them.” So I click on the survey to let them know what I think and let’s fix these problems. My excitement over the thought they finally got it vanished quickly.

Do you think the survey was about how can we make the membership happy?….No

Do you think the survey was about how can we correct the problems like the Induction ticket fiasco?….No

Do you think the survey was about how can we make having a membership more valuable to you?….No

Do you think the survey was about any of the problems any of us have been complaining about?.....ahh no.

No the survey was about their monthly email blasts. Do you like the colors they use for it? Do you like the ratio of photos to text in it? What day of the week would you like to receive it?

My response to the survey… “Are you f______ kidding me!”

After all of the negative comments on their social media pages and in stories like mine about how the Rock Hall is being run they want to know if the colors used in their emails is too my liking. That’s the biggest concern they have.

Okay they don’t get it. I already established that in my last story on them. No need to rehash that.

“Are you f______ kidding me!” (Sorry I had to get that out of my system.)

I was ready to totally give up on them until last week when I got a media release from them about an upcoming event at the hall. There was nothing really that excited me in the release until I got to the part about ticketing. “Tickets will be available to Members on Thursday, January 12 at 10am EST and will become available to the general public on Friday, January 13 at 10am EST. Seating is limited.”

What did I just read? Members will be taking care of first. Oh my god…

Someone there read what I wrote last month, well actually I know for a fact a lot of them read the story thanks to my friend there that sent me the email and how many of them un-friended me on Facebook after it was published. (Ouch!)

I wrote that story as a wake up call to the Rock Hall of how the membership was feeling and it looks like it worked, if just for a little bit, then that’s at least a start. If the administration at the Rock Hall read the story and thought to give the membership a little respect and treat them as a serious part of the hall, it can’t do anything but help build their base.

Look letting the membership have first dibs on the tickets to the upcoming event is just a little thing, a very little thing, but to the membership it is important little thing.

I said I would call out the Rock Hall when they screwed up and to be fair I have to give them props when they do the right thing like this but how about not letting this be a one time thing and make it the first step to making all of us, your membership, feel like a part of the Rock Hall.

We’ll see….

Bruce Springsteen is about to release a new album, his first with new material since 2007's "Magic." It's the Boss' 17th studio release and the first since the deaths of E Street Band members Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici.

"Wrecking Ball" will drop on March 6th and an American and European tour will follow. "Bruce has dug down as deep as he can to come up with this vision of modern life," Springsteen's manager Jon Landau said in a statement. "The lyrics tell a story you can't hear anywhere else and the music is his most innovative of recent years. The writing is some of the best of his career and both veteran fans and those who are new to Bruce will find much to love on 'Wrecking Ball.'"

Wanna get a taste of the new stuff? A single from the new album is already up on YouTube. It's called "We Take Care of Our Own" and it's a great mix of classic and modern Bruce. 

For more info go to Bruce's website