This episode’s special guest is Troy Smith, Entertainment and pop culture reporter for Cleveland.com. Don’t miss this candid talk about his experiences covering the Rock Hall, from induction ceremonies to museum events to high-profile interviews. We also discuss the balancing act of being supportive of the hall while also being critical of it. 

She was irresistibly charming, gifted and ready to conquer the world when she was taken from us at the age of 23. Today we discuss the beautiful legacy of Selena, her impact on many popular music artists today and why we need to start including her in the Rock Hall discussion. We also begin the podcast with a discussion about this week’s tragic loss of Kraftwerk’s Florian Schneider.

In this episode, we’re thrilled to welcome fellow Rock Hall watcher Mark Lempke, the man behind the blog The Northumbrian Countdown and Twitter handle Alex Voltaire. We discuss Mark’s journey as a Rock Hall follower and prognosticator, how well the Hall is faring as an American institution, and talk about his personal Rock Hall snubs.

There’s a thrill up on the hill, so let’s go, let’s go, let’s go listen to Eric revisit the tremendous work of Rock Hall inductees Hank Ballard and the Midnighters. He looks back at the band’s career, Hank’s racy lyrical content and the intriguing way their music was used in film. 

Today we chat with friend and fellow hall watcher Michelle Bourg. We discuss her blog Iconic Rock Talk Show, how she got started as a hall watcher and her hopes for the John Sykes era.  She also dishes on what it was like to meet Greg Harris and her experience at the 2018 induction ceremony simulcast.

Today we discuss cult icon Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, a Cleveland legend and the man who invented shock rock, but the biggest shock is that he isn’t inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Mary explains why he is overdue for a Rock Hall Early Influence induction by looking back at his legendary personal life, the evolution of his music career and his enormous impact on metal, punk and shock rock alike.

Today we chat with friend and fellow hall watcher Nick Bambach, and we discuss his blog The Audio-Visual Repository, the current state of the Rock Hall, our favorite music biopics and celebrity encounters on Twitter.

In an attempt to spread fun and cheer at pandemic levels, we each answer 15 music themed questions about ourselves that range from silly scenarios to music related memories. We reveal the musicians we would self quarantine with, who we would make biopics about, our high school prom themes and so much more!

Join us for a quick catch up chat today on a myriad of topics! We discuss the unprecedented postponement of the Rock Hall 2020 ceremony due to COVID-19 fears, the recent board members added by John Sykes and briefly recap our trip to Los Angeles. We also discuss the future of the podcast as well as what we've been up to.

Hall Watchers is honored to chat with our very first podcast guest, journalist, author and professor Evelyn McDonnell. We discuss gender imbalance at the Rock Hall, her influence on the Rock Hall watcher conversation as well as Turn It Up, a collective working towards gender parity in the music industry.