Rock Hall Boots DJ's Ashes, Adds Beyonce Costumes

Rock 'n roll pioneer being evicted, son complains
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 4, 2014 5:19 AM CDT
DJ's Ashes Out, Beyonce Costumes In at Hall of Fame
The shoes from Beyonce's "Sweet Dreams" are displayed in a new exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.    (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)

Rock pioneer Alan Freed's final resting place at Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame isn't so final after all. The DJ's son, Lance, says the museum has told him to come and pick up his father's ashes, which have been on display since 2002. The museum's director said, "Look Lance, there's something strange, people walk past the exhibit and your dad's ashes and they scratch their heads and can't figure out what this thing is, and we'd like you to come pick up the ashes," the son tells the Plain Dealer.

The treatment of Freed, who coined the term "rock and roll" and whose Cleveland connection helped bring the museum to the city, is "disrespectful," his son tells CNN, which notes that the "eviction" comes just days after the museum opened an exhibit featuring Beyonce's leotards and other costumes. The museum's director says it will continue to honor Freed, but the museum world is moving away from exhibiting remains. "Rock and roll isn't just about yesterday," he says. "It continues to evolve, and we continue to embrace it and refine our operations." Freed's son says he plans to find another resting place in Cleveland for his father, who died in 1965 at the age of 43. (More Rock and Roll Hall of Fame stories.)

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