Remembering an architect of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: A tribute to James Henke
An interesting read.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame plays a central role in any pitch Cleveland makes to land a significant national event. It was a key selling point for the GOP in bringing the Republican National Convention to town in 2016. It was essential to the success of the recent MLB All-Star Week festivities downtown. And you can bet it will be a key player in whatever happens in 2021 when the city hosts the NFL Draft.
And for that we owe a huge debt of gratitude to James Henke, a native son who died this week at the age of 65 after a long battle with dementia.
Others made key contributions in the years-long effort to build the Rock Hall in Cleveland. But no one played a bigger role in its creation than Henke, a longtime writer and editor at Rolling Stone magazine who served as chief curator at the museum from 1994 to 2012.
I.M. Pei may be credited as its architect, but the Rock Hall would have been an empty vessel without Henke, who led the curatorial team that built the museum’s collection and created the exhibits that made it a world-class institution from the start.
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“Artists trusted him and his presence on the team was a sign that the Rock Hall would be more than just some promotional platform for the music industry,” says Barrie. “With people like Jim on board, the new museum was seen as something to support and ultimately, to cherish.”
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A Bay Village native and graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, he worked briefly as a copy editor at The Plain Dealer before taking a job at Rolling Stone magazine in 1977. He worked there for more than 15 years, first as a copy editor and writer and later as music editor, overseeing the magazine's coverage of popular music.
Henke was an early champion of U2 and wrote Rolling Stone’s first profile of the band in 1981. He also wrote frequently about Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band and traveled with the group on the Amnesty International Human Rights Now! tour, chronicling the trip in his 1988 book, “Human Rights Now.” He was the author of major Rolling Stone profiles of the Clash, the Police, Queen and many other bands. He was also a trusted confidante of Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, a co-founder of the New York-based Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and a key figure in the development of the museum..
Henke arrived in Cleveland in January of 1994, fresh from a year at Elektra Records, where he worked on marketing and career development with such new pop/rock groups as the Breeders, Moby, the Story and Ween and veterans such as Jackson Browne.
More: https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2019/07/remembering-an-architect-of-the-rock-roll-hall-of-fame-a-tribute-to-james-henke.html
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