Titled Rolling Stones: 50 Years Of Satisfaction, the exhibit will chronicle the band from the very beginning to present through artifacts from private collections and band members.

Carl Harp from our sister station WNCX in Cleveland took a tour of the exhibit earlier this week; here is his report:

“As visitors exit the escalator on the museum’s 4th floor, they are greeted by several video screens with around 100 still photos and music on a 9-minute loop.

The entrance to Rolling Stones: 50 Years of Satisfaction on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum’s 5th floor. (Photo Credit: Carl Harp / 98.5 WNCX

Visitors then move up the stairs to the fifth floor, where a giant mouth with drapes for a tongue mark the entrance to the exhibit. Among other things, you’ll see vintage photos of Rolling Stones members, memorabilia from the band’s late keyboardist/road manager Ian Stewart, and records from Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters on display in the “roots section.”

MORE: See a full photo gallery from the Rolling Stones exhibit. 

Digital installations are placed throughout the exhibit giving visitors the opportunity to interact and learn more about the band, their place in music history, and innovative impact. iPads programs enable you to dig deeper into the music, explaining Jagger/Richards’ songwriting approach and describes how the Stones were able to take popular techniques and styles of various time periods, like disco and funk, and convert them to their formula. During the press-only tour, the museum’s Director of Education, Jason Hanley, demonstrated the interactive iPads by showing off a video presentation and “Guitar Hero-like” graphics that dissect individual songs.

The Rolling Stones’ Mellotron on display in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & Museum. (Photo Credit: Carl Harp / 98.5 WNCX)

The items on display on the fifth floor move throughout the Stones’ early years, ending right around 1970. Visitors will see how the band transitioned from playing mostly cover music, to originals. Featured artifacts include signed merchandise like toy guitars, a Brian Jones dulcimer used on Aftermath‘s “Lady Jane” and “I Am Waiting”, a Sgt. Pepper-esque military jacket, the Mellotron (an early analog predecessor to the synthesizer) used on “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” drawings from the Stones’ drummer and art director Charlie Watts, the red shirt worn by Keith Richards when the band played Altamont, and a poem written by Jim Morrison following the death of Brian Jones.

Rehearsal song lists from the 2002-2003 Rolling Stones Licks Tour on display in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & Museum. (Photo Credit: Carl Harp / 98.5 WNCX)

As visitors move up the spiral staircase to the sixth floor, various takes on the “tongue and lip design” are pasted on the walls – one with spikes or thorns on the tongue, another with a nail driven through it, and the standard design are included. More memorabilia line the walls of the top floor where the exhibit starts where the fifth floor left off and moves to present day. You will see where Ronnie Wood was made a member of the band after the departure of Mick Taylor, the Lotus flower stage design from the 1975 tour, various clothing worn by Jagger and Richards, instruments, and even the rehearsal song lists on dry erase boards from the 2002-2003 Licks Tour.

Fans and visitors are asked to contribute to a fan-generated interactive exhibition through photos of memorabilia, artwork, Rolling Stones concerts and more. The content will populate a multimedia display in the Rolling Stones exhibit and online. You can contribute to the submission feed by uploading original photos and using the hashtag #rockhallsatisfaction on Twitter and Instagram.

The exhibit opens May 24th and runs through March 2014.

- Carl Harp / 98.5 WNCX

Six years ago, to celebrate the Doors’ 40th anniversary, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum presented “Break on Through: The Lasting Legacy of the Doors,” which Kramer worked on. When asked about his initial thoughts about Ray’s passing, Kramer took a deep breath and said, “I was deeply saddened. I worked with Ray on the Doors exhibit and I spent a lot of time with him and his wife Dorothy. I went to their home, and I feel like I got to know him and his brother Rick.” He continued, “I had no idea he was sick and it really caught me by surprise.”

Certainly considered more than a friend, Howard dug deeper into his relationship with Manzarek and the influence of the Doors.

“Ray was really talented and insightful guy. I think the Doors are often lumped together with a lot of other groups from ‘67, or became popular in ’67, like the (Grateful) Dead or the (Jefferson) Airplane, and that sort of thing. But they were very different. They were rooted in blues and rhythm and blues a lot more than those other bands, their contemporaries, particularly the San Francisco bands. They were truly an product of Los Angeles, not a product of San Francisco. And that’s one of the reasons I think they stuck out.”

“Their music had a different type of root than the people who are considered their contemporaries.”

The Doors were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, when, for the first time, the ceremony was held in Los Angeles – the Doors’ hometown. Twenty-years later, Kramer recounted the ceremony, even though he has only seen video.

“I was a pretty interesting thing. It was one of the last times that the three surviving guys played together. Having Eddie Vedder there, who in many people’s estimation, certainly filled the mantle that Morrison had in terms of being a charismatic front man.”

Visitors to the Rock Hall can still see Manzarek’s VOX keyboard and a drum head cover from Rick & The Ravens, the band Manzarek played in prior to the Doors. A photograph and biography will be added in the “In Memoriam” section on the museum’s 4th floor.

– Carl Harp / 98.5 WNCX

According to Billboard, the degree is being bestowed due to the “Evergreen” singer’s  ”concern for human rights and dedication to Israel and the Jewish people.”

It is anticipated that Streisand will be performing at a birthday celebration for Israeli President Shimon Peres at a June conference she will be attending. Peres will be turning 90 years old. Streisand is 71.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s school of Jewish studies, which was established in 10984, is named after Streisand’s father Emmanuel.

The honorary doctorate would be the second bestowed upon Streisand. She currently holds one in Arts and Humanities from Brandeis University located in Waltham, Massachusetts. She was recently honored for her film work with the 40th annual Chaplin Award from the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Although the Doors effectively ended in 1971 after the death of Jim Morrison, Manzarek spent a good amount of his life maintaining the band’s legacy. Other than his tours with Doors guitarist Robby Krieger, he also worked on keeping the band’s recorded work in the marketplace through a series of reissues, best-ofs and box sets.  The most recent release was the live concert film, Live At The Bowl ’68, which shows the band at the peak of their powers.

Manzarek was beaming through the phone as he told Radio.com about the show in a late 2012 interview. He said that some of his, and the band’s, favorite artists had played that stage, so it meant a lot for  to be booked at the Hollywood Bowl. “It was momentous. That was the granddaddy of all venues in Southern California. Igor Stravinsky conducted there! The Beatles played there! And we were playing at the same place. But up to that point, very few rock bands played there. We were very honored.”

With their second No. 1 single under their belt (“Hello, I Love You”; the first was “Light My Fire”) the band was on top of the world, having realized all their dreams of becoming rock stars in just a few short years.

“The best laid plans of mice and men had not gone astray yet,” Manzarek mused. “We dreamed of putting a rock and roll band together on Venice Beach in the summer of 1965. This is now the summer of 1968 and we had attained the goal. We wanted to be as big as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and we had arrived at that place.”

Indeed, at that time, The Doors — Manzarek, Krieger, drummer John Densmore and  Jim Morrison — had a powerful grip on their audience; Manzarek himself exclaimed that, in that moment in 1968, “Those four guys were the four horsemen of the apocalypse!” After the Hollywood Bowl gig, the Doors became even more popular and eventually headlined Madison Square Garden. Had Morrison lived a longer life, would they, like the Stones and Paul McCartney, have upgraded to football stadiums? “I’m not sure if you are still a rock and roll band or if you turn into a circus at that point,” Manzarek said.

However, Manzarek noted that if the Doors had been popular enough, they most likely would have tried to play the largest venues possible: “It would have been a theatrical challenge to do something like that. The Rolling Stones do it on a grand scale. So what would The Doors have done on a grand scale? All things would have been possible, unfortunately Jim didn’t make it.”

Referencing the massive popularity the band still enjoys decades after Morrison’s passing, he said, “The Doors were an underground band, out of the mainstream. That’s where Jim and I always wanted to be.”

Read more at Radio.com. 

– Brian Ives, Radio.com 

As of the latest reports, 91 people are dead, including at least 20 children and 100+ people are in the hospital.

So, the question people are asking is, “How can I help?”  It’s very quick and very easy.  Simply text redcross to 90999 and a $10 donation will be made to the Red Cross and will show up on your next cell phone bill.

You can also donate to the Red Cross online by clicking here or by calling 1-800-RED-CROSS.

Before donating, always be sure to follow the “3 C’s”:

CASH - Financial gifts are the best way to immediately help survivors. Donate to an established relief organization. For a complete list of established relief organizations, visit: www.nvoad.org/members.

CONFIRM - A community hit by disaster does not have the time, staffing or money to dispose of unneeded donations. Confirm any and all donations are needed before sending.

CONNECT - Volunteers are a critical part of disaster response and recovery, but it is important to get connected to an established relief organization before traveling to impacted areas to help.

If you have a family member or friend in the area where the tornado hit and you haven’t been able to contact them, you can check on their safety through the Red Cross Safe & Well Site here.

During an interview with Moore, Oklahoma resident Barbara Garcia, whose home was flattened to rubble, Garcia lamented not so much on the loss of her home, but on the loss of her little dog.

“I never lost consciousness and I hollered for my little dog and he didn’t answer or didn’t come,” Garcia told the interviewer before something truly miraculous happened. Take a look. It’s one of the few truly inspiring stories to come from yesterday’s tragedy.

The Latest From SUNNY

JUST IN: Keyboardist Ray Manzarek, a founding member of The Doors, has died at 74, his business manager confirms to @cbsnews

— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 20, 2013

According to the Doors’ Facebook post, at the time of his passing, he was surrounded by his wife Dorothy Manzarek, and his brothers Rick and James Manzarek.

“I was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of my friend and bandmate Ray Manzarek today,” said Krieger in the post. “I’m just glad to have been able to have played Doors songs with him for the last decade. Ray was a huge part of my life and I will always miss him.” Krieger and Manzarek performed together under a variety of names over the past few years.

Manzarek is survived by his wife Dorothy, brothers Rick and James Manczarek, son Pablo Manzarek, Pablo’s wife Sharmin and their three children Noah, Apollo and Camille. Funeral arrangements are pending. The post says “The family asks that their privacy be respected at this difficult time. In lieu of flowers, please make a memoriam donation in Ray Manzarek’s name at www.standup2cancer.org.”

– Brian Ives, Radio.com 

As the centerpiece of their one-day auction, Julien’s Auctions offered up a rare Vox guitar, claiming it to be “one of the rarest pieces of Beatles memorabilia ever to be offered.”

According to Billboard.com, the story goes that George Harrison had practiced “I Am the Walrus” using the guitar and John Lennon had used it in a video for the song “Hello, Goodbye.”

The custom-made guitar was crafted by Mike Bennett and Dickey Denney and gifted to “Magic Alex” Mardas by Lennon in 1967.

The $408,000 bid from an unidentified bidder was roughly twice the amount the guitar was initially expected to bring in.

The guitar had previously brought in just a little over $100,000 when sold by Christie’s auction house in London in 2004.

At Christie’s in 2004

Jeffrey Nugent wrote a May 17 op-ed about firearms for The Washington Post, where he stresses the need for stronger background checks, a sore spot for the NRA.

He wrote, “I agree with Ted that our constitutional right to bear arms should not be undermined. I want all those who are qualified to purchase a gun to be able to do so. But — and here is where I part ways with my brother — not everyone is qualified to own a gun, so expanded background checks should be a legislative priority.”

The rocker’s brother points out that today, anyone (even a convicted felon) can purchase guns at gun shows or through private sellers without a background check. He asks, “Why would responsible gun owners want to protect people who threaten not only our safety but our gun rights?”

He goes on to say: “The NRA has it wrong: Irresponsible gun owners are bad for everyone. If you shouldn’t have access to a gun, then there should be no way for you to access a gun!”

Ted responded two days later with a post at Newsmax, titled “My Dear Misinformed Brother.”

The crux of his argument is: “Passing expanded background checks would do nothing to curtail or suppress thugs or psychos from accessing weapons and committing mass murder, carjacking, the nightly shootouts in Chicago or a gangsta shooting at the Mother’s Day parade in New Orleans. Paroled thugs or bug-eyed psychotics could not care less about any gun laws.The bold and ugly reality is that they will always gain access to a weapon.”

Read more at Radio.com

Luckily, the tornado lifted just seconds before reaching the station, leaving the building undamaged. While thousands of homes and businesses lost power during the storm, there were no reports of injuries or fatalities.