Caught between rock and a display case
Dobney oversees Hard Rock Hotel’s iconic collection of memorabilia
Vegas Voices is a weekly series featuring notable Las Vegans.
Wit comes to music memorabilia, few names carry as much clout as Hard Rock. The local Hard Rock Hotel’s collection, which is independent of any other Hard Rock’s, boasts around 4,000 pieces, with about 200 on display at any given time.
Overseeing the entire collection is Beau Dobney.
Five years ago, the former bartender was a stay-athome dad and student, pursuing a degree in early childhood education. When he and his wife were invited to a New Year’s party at the home of Hard Rock memorabilia curator Warwick Stone, she learned Stone was looking for an assistant in his job overseeing the Hard Rock’s collection.
“She was like, ‘You should take my husband, because he’s going to school, but he’s not digging it,’ ” Dobney says.
He was eventually hired for the job, which primarily involved going backstage at concerts and asking artists to sign things.
“There were some nights when I started, where I’d go to the Cosmo, and I’d go to wherever, the field in front of Mandalay, and then back to the Hard Rock, and get three different guitars signed,” Dobney says of his early days. But he also received a sign early on that the job presented a serious opportunity.
“Warwick, I think it was my first month in, introduced me to somebody as his protege. And I was like ‘Oh, this isn’t just a temp gig,’ ” he says, laughing.
When Stone left the resort about a year ago, Dobney was tapped to replace him. Today, his official title is artist relations and exhibits coordinator. We spoke with him about what that
VOICES
entails, and what goes into maintaining the Hard Rock’s iconic collection.
Review-journal: How do you rotate the items on display?
Dobney: It’s a piece-bypiece kind of thing. There’s always a case that’s been in the longest, where I’m waiting for the right thing to pop up (to replace it).
If it’s one of the two in the main entrance, like Imagine Dragons and Killers, something big and great, they’re so sizable that we try tomakesurethatwhatever is going to go in there is going to stay for a long period of time. But there’s a time where it’s been too long. There are a couple in my head right now that are ready (to come down). Those are my pending cases to do something with. Something is always popping up. It just depends.
With art and memorabilia, artists can go in and out of style. Who’s hot right now in the music memorabilia world?
A lot of people are still into the classics. All the kings on the thrones: The Beatles, Hendrix, The Who, Zeppelin. And then the modernday kings, like Avenged Sevenfold. Everybody from the ’90s that hit hard: Tool, Soundgarden, Nirvana. I think that’s all coming into its own heat.
Have some artists gone down in desirability or value?
(After sidestepping the question several times, Dobney eventually offered the following):
A lot of one-hit wonders from the ’90s. Like we have a Tonic guitar. OK Go.
I’m not really into putting up the hair metal right now. I’ve had enough of hair metal.
But I say to people all the time, no one piece of memorabilia is irrelevant, ever, because there are always fans, and its(relevance)isalways paired to the story. So it just depends on how it’s presented.
What are the best items for your collection, and for retaining value?
For me, it’s items that are linked to an event. Or anything that a band has used to record an album. So when a fan sees it in a case, it hits them that that’s what Vivian Campbell used to record a Def Leppard album. That’s the guitar where he did this solo. Or that’s the guitar that Neal Schon recorded “Lights” with.
I’m sure you’ve had to crush a lot of people’s dreams by telling them something wasn’t rare or valuable. Can you give an example?
This guy was like, “Yeah, I have Polaroids of Taylor Swift.”
So I sat down with the guy. And he was like, “Yeah, I have the Polaroids, and I wanted to come to you first because Ididn’twanttooffendher camp.”
And then he pulls them out, and I look at them. And they’re not Polaroids, for one, they’re just cards. And I look attheback,anditsaystaylor Swift 2017.
And I was like, “Dude, these are what comes with the high-end CD package. You have one in 20 million.”
For artists who don’t play an instrument, what items do you seek out?
When it comes to pop stars, it’s their outfits.
We’ve had two DJS on display. And it was mostly ephemera and maybe some shoes, and a mixing board, and a bag of records. That’s whyi’vestayedawayfrom doingdjs.
But one of my holy grails would be Daft Punk. Somebody notable like that. What would be better than draped velvet into two gleaming helmets? But I haven’t seen any (DJ helmets on the market). There were talks for a while with Deadmau5, but they kind of fell off the table.
You’re surrounded by music at your job. What do you listen to, and where do you go to hear live music when you’re off?
I like a lot of prog rock.
I’m really into Nothing But Thieves right now. And I really love electronic stuff. I always call it French electropop, stuff that sounds like M83. And I’ve always kind of been on the indie, and punk. I’m a die-hard Smiths and Morrissey fan.
I’ll go check out a show at the Bunkhouse now and then. And I’ll hit all the local venues, like The Chelsea and Brooklyn Bowl.
Contact Al Mancini at amancini@reviewjournal. com or 702-387-5250. Follow @Almancinivegas on Twitter.