{"id":327215,"date":"2024-08-06T16:40:45","date_gmt":"2024-08-06T21:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=327215"},"modified":"2024-08-07T10:16:44","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T15:16:44","slug":"hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard Rock Rockford to Get 62-Ft Guitar Honoring Cheap Trick\u2019s Rick Nielsen"},"content":{"rendered":"

The entrance to the Hard Rock Casino in Rockford, Ill. will soon be adorned with a 62-foot-tall electric guitar. Since Hard Rock is a brand synonymous with outsized electric guitar signage, this may not be earth-shattering news, except that this guitar is also a nod to local pop culture history. Or should that be power pop?<\/p>\n

\"Hard
An artist\u2019s rendering of the finished Hard Rock Rockford, complete with Rick Nielson\u2019s checkerboard Hamer Standard on the frontage. (Image: Hard Rock International)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The guitar is a replica of the distinctive checkerboard Hamer Standard played by Rick Nielsen<\/a>, guitarist with local band and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Cheap Trick. It will be installed later this month after having been approved by local zoning officials.<\/p>\n

All of the original members of Cheap Trick are Rockford natives, and Nielson was a great advocate for the Hard Rock brand to come to his hometown during the license bidding process.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In August 2019, he and his family attended the official unveiling of the Hard Rock bid, declaring it to be a \u201cdream come true.\u201d Nielsen\u2019s wife, Karen Nielson, was an investor in the project, something that wasn’t mentioned at the unveiling.<\/p>\n

Air Guitars<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The 62-foot guitar, which is also over 38 feet wide, is more than twice as big as the Gibson Les Paul attached to the Hard Rock Atlantic City, which is a mere 30 feet high. But it\u2019s not the biggest to adorn a Hard Rock property.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Hard Rock Biloxi’s Peavey guitar, above, was the tallest guitar signage in the world when it opened in 2005. (Image: Hard Rock International)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Peavey HP Signature that has greeted visitors to the Hard Rock in Biloxi Miss. since 2005 is 112 feet tall. It largely survived the ravages of Hurricane Katrina later that year. That\u2019s more that can be said for the casino resort to which it was attached, which was leveled by the storm.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Peavey guitar was chosen for Biloxi, incidentally, because the company was founded in Mississippi in 1965.<\/p>\n

It was the biggest Hard Rock guitar in the world on its completion. But it was usurped in 2019 with the opening of the Guitar Hotel at Seminole Hard Rock and Casino in Hollywood, Fla<\/a>., which is actually a hotel tower built in the shape of a guitar. It stands at 450 feet tall and took 10 years to build.<\/p>\n

The tower was a grand statement by the Seminole tribe, which owns the rights to the Hard Rock brand across the world.<\/p>\n

August 29 Opening<\/h2>\n

Back in Rockford, the temporary Hard Rock Casino, named A Hard Rock Opening Act, will close on August 12 to make way for the headliner, which is expected to open with a \u201cguitar smash\u201d weekend celebration on August 29. The weekend will see performances by Nielsen, as well as Akon, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and Brad Paisley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The entrance to the Hard Rock Casino in Rockford, Ill. will soon be adorned with a 62-foot-tall electric guitar. Since Hard Rock is a brand synonymous with outsized electric guitar signage, this may not be earth-shattering news, except that this guitar is also a nod to local pop culture history. Or should that be power […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":327216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,18,86430,86438],"tags":[91968,91969,91966,91967],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHard Rock Rockford to Get 62-Ft Guitar Honoring Rick Nielsen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hard Rock Rockford to feature 62-feet replica of Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielson\u2019s distinctive checkerboard Hamer Standard.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hard Rock Rockford to Get 62-Ft Guitar Honoring Rick Nielsen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hard Rock Rockford to feature 62-feet replica of Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielson\u2019s distinctive checkerboard Hamer Standard.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-08-06T21:40:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-08-07T15:16:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Rockford.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"682\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/\",\"name\":\"Hard Rock Rockford to Get 62-Ft Guitar Honoring Rick Nielsen\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Rockford.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-08-06T21:40:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-07T15:16:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Hard Rock Rockford to feature 62-feet replica of Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielson\u2019s distinctive checkerboard Hamer Standard.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Rockford.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Rockford.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":682,\"caption\":\"An artist\u2019s rendering of the finished Hard Rock Rockford, complete with Rick Nielson\u2019s checkerboard Hamer Standard on the frontage. (Image: Hard Rock International)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Commercial Gaming\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/commercial-gaming\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Hard Rock Rockford to Get 62-Ft Guitar Honoring Cheap Trick\u2019s Rick Nielsen\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hard Rock Rockford to Get 62-Ft Guitar Honoring Rick Nielsen","description":"Hard Rock Rockford to feature 62-feet replica of Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielson\u2019s distinctive checkerboard Hamer Standard.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hard Rock Rockford to Get 62-Ft Guitar Honoring Rick Nielsen","og_description":"Hard Rock Rockford to feature 62-feet replica of Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielson\u2019s distinctive checkerboard Hamer Standard.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2024-08-06T21:40:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-08-07T15:16:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":682,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Rockford.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/","name":"Hard Rock Rockford to Get 62-Ft Guitar Honoring Rick Nielsen","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Rockford.jpg","datePublished":"2024-08-06T21:40:45+00:00","dateModified":"2024-08-07T15:16:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Hard Rock Rockford to feature 62-feet replica of Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielson\u2019s distinctive checkerboard Hamer Standard.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Rockford.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Rockford.jpg","width":1000,"height":682,"caption":"An artist\u2019s rendering of the finished Hard Rock Rockford, complete with Rick Nielson\u2019s checkerboard Hamer Standard on the frontage. (Image: Hard Rock International)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hard-rock-rockford-to-get-62-ft-guitar-honoring-rick-nielsen\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Commercial Gaming","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/commercial-gaming\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Hard Rock Rockford to Get 62-Ft Guitar Honoring Cheap Trick\u2019s Rick Nielsen"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327215"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327215"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":327288,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327215\/revisions\/327288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}