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Bob Santelli
, executive
director of the Grammy Museum
in Los Angeles, was supposed
to grow up and be in law
enforcement like his dad, but The
Beatles changed that.
“When I was a kid, I always
dreamt of being a writer,” Santelli
said. “I was a big reader and
I liked to write, but, coming
from a working class family, my
parents pretty much discouraged
the possibility of their first son
becoming anything but a police
officer.”
He has written for Rolling Stone
magazine, published 14 books
about music and travel, helped
curate the first Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame in Cleveland, lectured
several times about American
music at the White House with
First Lady Michelle Obama and
produced a centennial collection
of Woody Guthrie recordings
for the Smithsonian Folklore
Archives. He has interviewed
musical legends such as Bruce
Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Michael
Jackson, and Bob Marley.
Hanging in his grandmother’s
home in Jersey City was what he
calls the Holy Trinity – pictures of
John F. Kennedy (because he was
the first Catholic President), Pope
John XXXIII (the pope at the time)
and Frank Sinatra.
“My earliest musical memories
are pretty much of Frank Sinatra,”
he said. “Sinatra was played in
every Italian American home,
especially in New Jersey.”
Santelli explains that Sinatra’s
kids were born in Jersey City, and
Sinatra lived near the hospital
where he was born. “I grew up a
few miles away, so he was really
important.”
The night he heard The Beatles
on the Ed Sullivan show, Feb. 19,
1964, “changed everything.” His
destiny shifted and a rebellion to
his parents’ music stirred.
“Teen America woke up and
changed,” he recalls. “It was like
we were different people and I
was one of them. I just couldn’t
get enough of music after that. It
was an epiphany.”
He was so shaken by the
moment that his previously avid
participation in high school
sports suffered, and dreams of
the first-born following in his
father’s footsteps faltered. “I
know my father, who is a New
Jersey State Trooper, really did
not like that, but in 1965, he took
me to my first concert.”
Santelli sat in the front row; he
was 10 feet away – eye contact
and jaw-dropping distance –
from Mick Jagger of the Rolling
Stones. “That just propelled
what I had seen a year earlier, the
Beatles, and there was no turning
back.”
As with so much in Santelli’s
life, timing and discipline play
serendipitous roles.
Although a history major, he
got free albums and tickets to
concerts by writing music reviews
for his college newspaper. “I was
passionate about music, and I
was a musician. I thought that
would be a great way to get into
concerts free and to get records
free, which I couldn’t afford. Then,
it dawned on me that this was
also a way to write, and so I did
that.”
By his senior year, he was the