Hard Rock Cafe exhibit to open Friday in Tower City Center

CLEVELAND - For Hard Rock, when you operate 138 cafes and 15 hotel/casinos in 54 countries, you amass one heck of a collection of Rock and Roll memorabilia, in their case 72,000 pieces. So whenever the next year's class of inductees is announced, they need only search their Florida warehouse to come up with a mini exhibit.

That's more or less what they did this year with the fruits of their labor to be on display for the public starting Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. across from the Hard Rock Cafe in Tower City Center.

Among the items on display in the "Code Breakers of Rock and Roll" exhibit are the "VW" necklace worn by Mike D of the Beastie Boys; a Gibson Les Paul guitar played by former Guns N' Roses rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin and a blue jump suit worn by Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The exhibit also features a tribute to legendary Rock and Roll journalist Jane Scott, the longtime music critic for the Cleveland Plain Dealer who died last year at the age of 92.

"We want people that are coming into town to really know what Jane meant to us as a city and to rock and roll in general," said Hard Rock General Manager Rick Wittkopp.

The exhibit features photos of Scott with the artists she not only covered but knew people like Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Sting, David Bowie and many others. "A true Cleveland gem," said Wittkopp.