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Dimitrios Kambouris Getty Images for The Rock and Ro
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CLEVELAND, OHIO - OCTOBER 30: President and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Greg Harris speaks onstage during the 36th Annual Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on October 30, 2021 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame )
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GRACE SULLIVAN
by Frank Quattrone
Greg Harris rocks. He really rocks! Growing up in Morrisville, Bucks County, in the mid-’70s, he made some noise with the neighborhood kids who rocked stickballs in the streets of the peaceful borough. With heroes like Mike Schmidt, Greg Luzinski, Steve Carlton, and “Shake and Bake” McBride to admire, Greg and his pals became passionate Phillies fans who emulated their favorite players’ batting stances and bat flips, collected and flipped baseball cards and had their stats down flat. They even caught some games at the Vet.
A few years later, Greg built his first car, a ’57 Chevy, while listening to Jerry Blavat, the Geator with the Heater, playing doo-wop and other early and contemporary rock hits on his car radio, seamlessly linking the present and the past. He also enjoyed the alternative rock being played on WXPN and Trenton’s college radio stations.
A fledgling rhythm guitarist himself, Greg was also enamored of Delaware’s rising blues-rock dynamo George Thorogood, whose raucous, driving renditions of musical artists as diverse as John Lee Hooker and Johnny Cash fired up his inner teenage rage. And he caught some shows at Trenton’s now-shuttered City Gardens rock club, hosted by popular DJ Randy Now (Randy Ellis), a promoter and later his good friend.
Would you be surprised to learn that Greg Harris is now the president and CEO of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? Oh, yes—and that along the way to this enviable post, he served for 14 years as a senior executive for the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.!
What a long, strange trip it’s been. But maybe it was destined to be so. Many of us share Greg’s passion for baseball and rock. But how many are also as passionate about history and love museums that bring the rich stories of the past into the present? Greg traces his affinity for history to inspiring teachers that many of us wish we had had. And he lived in a part of the country where history came alive—from seeing the house in nearby Washington Crossing from which General Washington launched his bold crossing of the Delaware on Christmas night in 1776 to the multitude of Revolutionary War sites in the City of Brotherly Love.
So it was only natural for this inquisitive young man, born in West Trenton in 1965, to pursue his studies in history (after starting out in communications) at Temple University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1989. While still a student at Temple, he and good friend Jacy Webster co-founded the Philadelphia Record Exchange at 1545 Frankford Avenue. Specializing in hard-to-find LPs, the record store is thriving to this day, now that a new generation has finally embraced the vinyl we loved years ago.
Greg’s next stop was the University of Pennsylvania, where he was accepted into the folklore studies program. His tenure there was short, as his mentor, Dr. Kenneth Goldstein, the acclaimed folklorist, educator, record producer, and major force in the American Folk Music Revival, told him about a special program in History & Museum Studies being offered at the State University of New York in Cooperstown.
Bet you know where this is going. Not only did Greg earn his master’s degree in this little-known major, but he also fell in love with the idyllic village at the southern tip of Otsego Lake that was home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Was it fate that the famed museum needed someone to help organize its baseball film footage from the 1920s and 1930s and just happened to tap the recent graduate whose earlier film studies at Temple made him the perfect fit for the task?
Not only did Greg do his job well, but his passion for baseball and elite communications skills made him a natural fundraiser for the museum. Before long, he became vice-president of development, working on government relations and helping to run the business he loved so well. He was there for the induction of several of his local baseball heroes, including Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, even Harry Kalas.
But in his fourteenth year at the Baseball Hall (2008), the Rock Hall came to call, presenting him with a seemingly impossible dilemma. In need of a savvy administrator to oversee development, membership, special events, and government affairs, who did they turn to but Greg Harris? “I thought I’d never leave Cooperstown,” said Greg in our mid-July interview. “I love baseball. But I love music even more. How could I resist?”
Asked and answered.
Starting out as vice president of development and government affairs in 2008, Greg was eventually named president and CEO of the Rock Hall by the end of 2012.
“It’s a magical place,” he tells me. “It’s been great to honor the best of the best, and, like Cooperstown, to be able to tell their amazing stories. I’ve always been a fan of things—old cars, diners, vinyl—and the history of everyday people who finally break big.
“I think rock is thriving and the Hall is stronger than ever.” He points to the fourteen million people who have visited the museum since it opened its doors to the public on September 2, 1995, with a marathon blockbuster benefit concert at nearby Cleveland Municipal Stadium. That memorable rockfest featured artists as diverse as Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, James Brown, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Booker T. and the M.G.s.
Since he began his tenure as president, Greg said that the museum has added “an immersive new theater where visitors can play the instruments there. Some couldn’t believe their good fortune one day when Metallica showed up and they were able to jam together!
“We now host over a hundred live shows each year. I’m also excited by a 50,000-foot expansion of the Hall starting out this Fall.”
He lauded several of the new exhibits now running at the museum, including a celebration of 50 years of hip-hop and a close-up of the Beatles’ legendary “Let It Be” rooftop concert. Perhaps most significant for the Philly music scene, Greg feels there’s been more attention than ever on Philly artists. “Hall & Oates have been inducted. We have an expanded Philly Soul exhibit. And I’m sure there’s more to come.”
But “Rave On,” the new exhibit running at the Hall for at least the next three years, features instruments and artifacts belonging to Philly’s first rock and roll star, a rockabilly rambler named Charlie Gracie, South Philly born and bred. Gracie’s first single was “Boogie Woogie Blues,” released on Cadillac Records in 1951 when he was just 15.
Greg Harris returned to the Philadelphia area in June to participate in a Charlie Gracie celebration at Delaware County’s Media Theatre. “Charlie was one of the earliest rockers to tour the U.K. The young Beatles and Stones came to watch him perform, even before Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and Little Richard, several of the rockers he toured with in the early ’60s who are also featured in “‘Rave On.’”
One of Greg’s fondest musical memories was another evening not long ago when he played rhythm guitar behind some local rock bands at Johnny Brenda’s, one of Philly’s more compact indie rock venues, located in Fishtown. On the same bill that evening was Charlie Gracie, who died last December at age 86. “I didn’t play along with him, but man, it was such an honor just to share the same stage with Charlie.”
On his frequent returns to the area, Greg reminisces about the time he lived here. “When I revisit Bucks County, I remember how much I loved those stone houses, the red dirt and the red rock. I was once in a play at the Bucks County Playhouse. Makes me feel like I never left. I still have family here. My mother lives in New Hope. And every summer I come back home to spend some time down the shore, in Sea Isle City.”
Greg also recalls that while he was still a student at Temple, he took a job in the record department at the Book Trader at 5th and South. Shortly thereafter, he and his friend opened the Philadelphia Record Exchange. He has also served as road tour manager for Ben Vaughn, another Philly favorite, a singer-songwriter, record producer, composer for TV and film, and host of WXPN radio’s weekly program “The Many Moods of Ben Vaughn.”
Greg and his wife Deirdre have two children, both of whom have fascinating careers. Their daughter, Alex, who recently graduated from Lehigh University, works in New York designing restaurant interiors. And son Jack, a musician and songwriter who recently performed at the Glastonbury Music Festival in England, is also an actor. Look for him playing the lead role in a new movie on early rocker Eddie Cochran sometime this Fall.
As to his own personal musical tastes, Greg has said that he loves “anything with grit and an edge that tells a story.” On his Rock Hall bio, Greg says he favors “punk, swamp, Southern soul, scratchy blues, old country, rockabilly, garage rock and all points in between.” Guess that about covers it! Among his favorite albums he counts everything from the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street and Patti Smith’s Horses to Music from Big Pink by The Band and Bob Dylan’s New Morning.
Greg Harris can’t believe his good fortune, yet he takes none of it for granted. “Hard to believe I’ve been fortunate enough to spend the last thirty years in two great museums dedicated to the great heroes of baseball and rock and roll. I do take pride in knowing that we’ve brought these museums to life to hit people where it really matters.
“The Rock Hall is so relevant today because all of us have this fantastic reservoir of memory—times when music meant so much to us. When we fell in love. Who we shared that great concert experience with. From Frankie Avalon and Charlie Gracie to Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston, music has been the soundtrack to our lives.” And the Rock & Roll Hall of Frame has been the best place to store it all and to continue telling those timeless stories for generations to come.
Frank D. Quattrone is an author, newspaper editor, teacher and freelance writer from Montgomery County who writes about local history, food, art, music and people.