Ever wonder where the band goes after they stop playing, after they finish with the groupies, and after they’ve partied the whole night and simply want to pass out and catch a few Z’s? Well, if they are on tour, it’s back to a hotel.
But not just any hotel. There are a handful of hotels across the country where the band, whoever they might be, just has to stay. These are your legendary rock and roll hotels where all manner of excesses occur.
A great article in The New York Times by Steven Kurutz delves into some of the more historic dives around the country favored by every hotel’s worst nightmare, the touring rock band. Having grown up in LA, I was familiar with the classic Continental Hyatt House on the Sunset Strip (nicknamed the Riot House) where legends like Led Zeppelin came to toss TVs out the windows and punch holes in the walls. I haven’t heard of most of the other hotels mentioned but each is equally notorious in the rock world. Kurutz kindly links us to the six of the most famous in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Tucson, and London.
Kurutz also quotes a hilarious line from “All the Rage,” a book written by rock-and-roller Ian McLagan whose band the Faces regularly stayed in Holiday Inns while touring; “It was not possible to walk into the identical room in 20 different cities without wanting to hurt it, just a little.”
Don’t you just love rock and roll?