Those who attend a “fun-raiser” Oct. 11 for the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum on Route 66 in Joliet may learn of the exact place where it will be housed.
Ron Romero, chairman of the museum’s board of directors and facility’s creator, told The Daily Southtown he hopes to reveal the site at the event.
“It all looks like it’s falling into place. We have a fantastic spot selected. We have a contract and are negotiating with owners, but have components to be signed off still and need to be cleared with the city.”
The first benefit for the museum was last year. Romero hopes to open the museum sometime in 2019:
“If all goes well we expect to open in the spring or early summer,” Romero said, noting he is in talks with a designer who created a Rick Nielsen exhibit in Rockford. The Joliet-based museum will have Cheap Trick guitars, guitar picks, drums, buttons and more.
The 15,000-square-foot museum will be dedicated to preserving the history of musicians with ties to Illinois and who have earned national or international recognition. It will house instruments, records, stage props, clothing, sheet music plus audio and visual recordings and have vinyl listening stations.
The fundraiser at the Jacob Henry Mansion at 20 S. Eastern Ave. in Joliet will include auctions of autographed guitars and other memorabilia and performances by Ronnie Rice and Skip Griparis. Tickets may be purchased here for $50 for VIPs and $25 for general admission.
The online radio station for the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum on Route 66 may be heard here.
The museum originally was named Route 66 The Road to Rock museum.
Illinois-linked rock acts the museum has touted include Chicago, REO Speedwagon, Cheap Trick, Buddy Guy, Smashing Pumpkins, Kanye West, King’s X, the Blues Brothers and Tom Morello,
The only comparable museum that comes to mind is the upcoming OKPop Museum in Tulsa, which will pay tribute to Oklahoma-based music artists.
(Image of the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum on Route 66 logo via Facebook)
Personally, I’d like to see a museum that pays tribute to all the museums on Route 66. Next door, there could be a museum that pays tribute to the museum about all the museums on Route 66. I propose that both be located in Pontiac, IL. If there isn’t space in Pontiac, then I think midway between Elk City, OK and Clinton, OK.