EO: What are your best and worst memories from working at Rolling Stone? Who is the best writer you have worked with?
JH: I really enjoyed my time at Rolling Stone. I spent about 15 years there, from 1977 to 1992, and I had the good fortune to have a lot of different positions. I started out as a copy editor for the music stories, and I was given the chance to do some writing at the same time. Then I was asked to move to Los Angeles to open a bureau there. I spent two years in LA before coming back to New York as music editor. I also worked on several special projects, including the Rolling Stone album guide and the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll. In many ways, I miss journalism. I miss the immediacy of doing an interview, writing the story and seeing it in print, all in a matter of weeks. The projects at the Hall of Fame take considerably longer to develop, so we sometimes spend a year or two on one exhibit.
People often wonder how I made the transition from journalism to being a curator. It was actually quite easy. Putting together an exhibit is very much like writing a story. At the Hall of Fame we try to figure out what we want to do, then we begin approaching people, both to obtain artifacts and to get more information about the subject. Inevitably one contact will lead you to numerous others, and you start finding people who have knowledge and/or artifacts that will help with the exhibit. Once the collecting process is finished, we develop an outline and figure out how we are going to tell the story — do we need a film, photos, interactives, etc.?
During much of my time at Rolling Stone, the music department consisted solely of me, Kurt Loder and Chris Connelly. We had some really great times and a lot of fun. I have few complaints
EO: The John Lennon exhibit is almost finished - when does it close? What has
it accomplished? What are its highlights?
JH: The Lennon exhibit opened in September of 2000 and will close at the end of this year. It has been our longest-running exhibit, primarily due to the demand from the public to see it. I think it works on several levels — the general fan of John Lennon or the Beatles will love being able to see so many of his personal items, from early childhood materials (report cards, drawings, notebooks), to aout 45 of his handwritten lyric manuscripts. The lyrics are my favorite part of the exhibit. They take up an entire floor and they really shed a lot of light on his creative process. We also look at John as an artist (there are many paintings and collages that have never before been exhibited) and we look at his work as a social activist with Yoko Ono. Yoko has been great to work with and this exhibit would have been impossible without her.
Article comments
1 - Sean Hackbarth
What does Mr. Henke think of the many bands who are eligible for induction that haven't made it? The first one off the top of my head is Rush. They've been making quality music and filling arenas for 30 years. They've progressed from heavy metal and prog rock to radio-friendly radio rock. What's prevented them from getting into the Hall of Fame?