Hard Rock Rockford to Get 62-Ft Guitar Honoring Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen

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?

The guitar is a replica of the distinctive checkerboard Hamer Standard played by Rick Nielsen, 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.

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.

In August 2019, he and his family attended the official unveiling of the Hard Rock bid, declaring it to be a “dream come true.” Nielsen’s wife, Karen Nielson, was an investor in the project, something that wasn’t mentioned at the unveiling.

Air Guitars

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’s not the biggest to adorn a Hard Rock property.

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’s more that can be said for the casino resort to which it was attached, which was leveled by the storm.

The Peavey guitar was chosen for Biloxi, incidentally, because the company was founded in Mississippi in 1965.

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., 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.

The tower was a grand statement by the Seminole tribe, which owns the rights to the Hard Rock brand across the world.

August 29 Opening

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 “guitar smash” weekend celebration on August 29. The weekend will see performances by Nielsen, as well as Akon, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and Brad Paisley.

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