CLEVELAND, Ohio — Thirty years ago, Cleveland Municipal Stadium hosted what may forever stand as the city’s most legendary concert: The Concert for the Hall of Fame, the explosive grand finale to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s opening weekend. On September 2, 1995, more than 65,000 fans packed the stadium to witness a once-in-a-lifetime lineup that read like a rock historian’s fever dream: Chuck Berry, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, The Kinks, James Brown, Jerry Lee Lewis, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, George Clinton, Little Richard — and dozens more.

The show was billed as a celebration, but for those of us in attendance it felt more like a coronation. Cleveland, long mocked and overlooked, suddenly found itself center stage in the global rock narrative. The energy

See Full Page