KENT, OH--Like many rock fans, 2003 Kent State Graduate Jason Prufer's obsession with the genre began with listening to vinyl records with his siblings and watching music videos during the golden era of MTV.
But Prufer says he knew there was something special about his hometown of Kent, the day he met legendary rockers the Ramones at Spin More Records—where he worked for more than a decade.
“Joey and Johnny Ramone, I mean looking like the Ramones that in your mind, you know when you think of the Ramones, they come walking in with their leather jackets and they spend an hour in there, looking at old movie posters, and looking at all sorts of memorabilia, record albums. And then Marky and Dee Dee show up. It made me a Ramones fan for life," says Prufer.
Nine years ago, Prufer, a senior library associate at Kent State, was asked to put together a gallery showing all the rock n roll happenings from the 60's, 70s and 80s.
His research showcased the golden era from 1965 to 1975, when the university welcomed Pink Floyd, Paul Simon, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Chrissie Hynde, and Ray Charles, just to name a few.
“Ray Charles probably didn't remember the night. Paul Simon probably doesn't remember the night he played at Kent State but the photographers, the writers for the Daily Kent Stater, they all remember that night. Everybody couldn't wait to tell me their stories. And the stories were dense and they were rich," says Prufer.
The ground breaking rock band Devo also formed out of Kent State, and even filmed some of their first music videos on campus.
But perhaps the biggest name to come from Kent State is hall of fame rock guitarist and songwriter Joe Walsh.
Walsh, best known for his 40 years with the Eagles, started off with a band named the Measles in 1966, two years later he would join the James Gang.
Fast forward to 2017, Walsh was in town and at the Kent State Library doing research for a documentary on May 4th.
In that chance encounter, Prufer met the rock legend and showed Walsh the manuscript to his book, the rest is history.
“He just starts looking at it and he is just like smitten with this thing. He is all into it. And not only, he is into it because he lived here from 1965 to 1971, he was a resident of Kent, he lived here during the summers the whole deal. So a lot of the concert stuff that was in there, even the James Gang or Joe Walsh related stuff, he had attended. At the end of it he just says to me, he says, "“do you want me to write a forward for this?,”" and I said yeah, sure.”
Prufer then teamed up with the Kent State University Press to release “Small town, Big Music, the Outsized Influence of Kent, Ohio on the History of Rock and Roll.
The 280 page hardcover book, which was released in January is available on campus, at Barnes and Noble or online through Amazon.
Prufer hopes his passion and 10 years of research and interviews will stand the test of time.
“I've had to become an author to make sure that this history and this information is able to travel into the future for future generations. And this town is still fertile ground for all that kind of stuff to happen again. And that's what a college town is," says Prufer.
