Rock Hall Announces Additional Chuck Berry Tribute Concert Artists, Music Conference, More

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and Case Western Reserve University are pleased to announce additional artists that will honor Chuck Berry at the 17th annual American Music Masters® tribute concert on Saturday, October 27, 2012. at 7:30 p.m. at PlayhouseSquare’s State Theatre. Joining the tribute concert lineup are: Rick Derringer, Ronnie Hawkins, Merle Haggard, Vernon Reid and Ray Sharpe.

Tribute concert performers previously announced include Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Ernie Isley and Darryl DMC McDaniels, Joe Bonamassa, Rosie Flores, John Fullbright, David Johansen, Lemmy Kilmister, JD McPherson, Chuck Prophet, Duke Robillard, Earl Slick and M. Ward. Chuck Berry will appear to accept the American Music Masters honor and is scheduled to perform. Due to a scheduling conflicting, Bucky Pizzarelli will not be able to perform.

The series is sponsored by Republic Steel, Panasonic Automotive and ELS Surround.

The weeklong series of events will begin on Monday, October 22. Tickets go on sale to the following just announced events in a week. Additional events will be announced soon.

Friday, October 26 at 8:30 p.m. – Live Concert by the Rick Derringer Trio on the Rock Hall’s Main Stage. Tickets are $15 and are available through the Rock Hall website at https://tickets.rockhall.com or at the Rock Hall Box Office. Rock Hall Members can purchase tickets starting at 10 a.m. on Monday, October 8. General public can purchase tickets starting at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, October 9.

Saturday, October 27 from 10:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. – American Music Masters Conference in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Foster Theater. A reflection on the career of Chuck Berry and his impact on rock and roll music. The conference will feature rare film footage presented by documentary filmmaker and archivist Joe Lauro of Historic Films, as well as interviews with Marshall Chess and more. Tickets are $25 ($10 lunch voucher included) and are available through the Rock Hall website at https://tickets.rockhall.com or at the Rock Hall Box Office. Rock Hall Members can purchase tickets starting at 10 a.m. on Monday, October 8. General public can purchase tickets starting at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, October 9. Admission to the Museum is free with the purchase of a conference ticket. Portions of this event will be streamed live on rockhall.com.

Saturday, October 27 at 7:30 p.m. Tribute Concert at PlayhouseSquare’s State Theatre. Tribute concert performers scheduled to appear include Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Ernie Isley and Darryl DMC McDaniels, Joe Bonamassa, Rick Derringer, Rosie Flores, John Fullbright, Ronnie Hawkins, Merle Haggard, David Johansen, Lemmy Kilmister, JD McPherson, Chuck Prophet, Vernon Reid, Duke Robillard, Ray Sharpe, Earl Slick and M. Ward. Chuck Berry will appear to accept the American Music Masters honor and is scheduled to perform. Tickets to the October 27th tribute concert range from $30 – $80 and are available at the PlayhouseSquare box office, by calling (216) 241-6000, or by visiting www.playhousesquare.org. TICKETS ARE STILL AVAILABLE, BUT ARE GOING FAST. A limited number of Friends of American Music Masters VIP packages are available beginning at $250 by contacting the Rock Hall’s development office at (216) 515-1201 or development@rockhall.org.

Roll Over Beethoven: The Life and Music of Chuck Berry, a weeklong celebration, will tell the story of the first artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Berry has had a lifetime of brilliant musicianship and has inspired nearly every rock artist to date. John Lennon once said “If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’.”

The full schedule of the 17th annual American Music Masters series events will feature additional performances, interview programs and films the week of October 22 – 27. A full schedule will be announced soon.

About Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry is the poet laureate of rock and roll. In the mid-Fifties, he took a fledgling idiom, born out of rhythm & blues and country & western, and gave it form and identity. A true original, Berry crafted many of rock and roll’s greatest riffs and married them to lyrics that shaped the rock and roll vernacular for generations. He has written numerous rock and roll classics that have been covered by multitudes of artists and stood the test of time. In all essential ways, he understood the power of rock and roll – how it worked, what it was about and who it was for.

While no individual can be said to have invented rock and roll, Berry arguably did more than anyone else to put the pieces together. For the complete Chuck Berry biography written by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, visit: http://rockhall.com/inductees/chuck-berry/bio/.

Each year, the American Music Masters® series explores the legacy of a pioneering rock and roll figure in a range of events that includes Museum exhibits, lectures, films, a major conference and a tribute concert benefiting the Rock Hall’s education programs. Drawing together experts, artists, fans and friends, these events provide new perspectives on the most beloved and influential musicians of the past century.

The tribute concert brings together a diverse mix of artists and musical styles, and as a result, many magical moments have taken place over the years. In 2004, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss performed onstage together for the first time to honor Lead Belly. The pair was awarded the highest honors of Album of the Year for Raising Sand and Record of the Year for “Please Read the Letter” at the 51st annual Grammy awards. Honoree Jerry Lee Lewis, who was not scheduled to perform at the 2007 concert, was moved to take the stage at the end of the show. Lewis tenderly played the piano and sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. At the first American Music Masters tribute concert, Bruce Springsteen set the bar high and performed in honor of Woody Guthrie. The most star-studded and unique performance by a trio was Aretha Franklin, Solomon Burke and Elvis Costello paying tribute to Sam Cooke in 2005. In 2008, a 93-year-old Les Paul took the stage with his trio and then led an epic jam with some of rock and roll’s greatest guitarists, from Jennifer Batten to Slash. Janis Joplin was honored in 2009 by Grammy winner Lucinda Williams with a song she composed especially for the occasion, and in 2010, Dave Bartholomew brought down the house with a performance in tribute of honorees Fats Domino and Bartholomew himself. In 2011, Aretha Franklin was not planning to perform, but at the last minute she requested a piano and took the stage to perform Leon Russell’s “A Song for You,” with fellow Inductees Jerry Butler, Dennis Edwards, and Ronald Isley, along with Cissy Houston.

The Ohio Arts Council helped fund this program with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment of all Ohioans.