Synopsis

The Indiana Jones of rock history and founding curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum narrates his quest to build the Rock Hall’s collection from scratch—a wild ride that would take him from Ozzy Osbourne's lavish country manor to Keith Moon’s childhood bedroom and Art Garfunkel’s personal archives, including never-revealed stories about icons such as Debbie Harry, Mick Jagger, Chuck Berry, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and more Craig Inciardi was a rising star at Sotheby’s, collecting iconic pieces of rock and roll memorabilia and rubbing shoulders with rich and famous collectors when he was recruited by the founders of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum for his dream job. Craig’s mandate: Travel the world and assemble the world’s greatest collection of rock memorabilia ever. What Craig didn’t know at the time was that there was no “museum.” In fact, no existing collection other than “a guitar of no importance and three interesting sheets of paper.” So began an epic rock odyssey, with Craig as popular music’s Indiana Jones. Working first from a cubicle in the Rolling Stone headquarters in New York and at the constant beck and call of the legendary Jann Wenner, Craig began his work, hounding musicians and their managers for memorabilia for the non-existent museum. His travels brought him to the doorsteps of the most legendary musicians of our time; to Ozzy Osbourne’s vast English estate (Ozzie met him with a rifle in hand), to Keith Moon’s perfectly preserved boyhood bedroom, to pouring through letters Paul Simon wrote to Art Garfunkel when they were both kids at sleep away camps, to collecting John Lennon’s glasses from Yoko Ono, stored with his other possessions in a heavy steel briefcase on the day of his murder. Every story is told in lush detail that Rock and Roll fans will savor. Equally fascinating is Inciardi’s first-hand account of the chaotic formation of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame itself, taking us backstage to the very first induction ceremonies, an innocent time when long overlooked musicians and some former enemies, celebrated each other and jammed into the night with friends and family looking on, to the secret induction meetings where top record company executives and managers bitterly argued over who would be included and who wouldn’t.

About The Author

Craig Inciardi is the founding curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and began working for the museum in 1991. Inciardi was instrumental in launching the museum and built the institution’s collection from the ground up. He has curated numerous award-winning exhibitions including “Rock Style,” a collaboration with the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1999. He also curated major exhibitions on The Rolling Stones, The Who's Tommy, John Lennon, The Clash, Rolling Stone Magazine, and “Louder Than Words,” an exhibition about rock and roll and politics which was a collaboration with the Newseum in Washington, DC. He was also charged with building the collection to open the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Library and Archive.   In 2019, Inciardi co-curated “Play It Loud: The Instruments of Rock and Roll” with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has conducted numerous on-camera interviews with artists, including Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Tom Morello, Taylor Swift, Bono, Ringo Starr, Paul Simon, and former president Jimmy Carter. He is the co-author of Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock and Roll which was published by Yale University Press. He is a contributor to the documentary Jimmy Carter: The Rock and Roll President, which was released in 2020. Previously, he worked at Sotheby's auction house in New York, where he developed specialized sales of rock and roll memorabilia and pop culture materials. He graduated from Fairfield University in 1986, where he studied Communications and English.