Bethany Brakemeyer
For The Lantern
[email protected]

Driving through a suburban neighborhood in Westerville, Ohio, nothing seems out of the ordinary: children running down the streets, people walking their dogs, even the mailman making his rounds. But inside one of the unassuming houses lies a little-known cavern rich in the history behind some of the most well-known groups in rock ‘n’ roll, known by one man: Rocko Reedy.

As the door is opened by Reedy, a suburban living room is unveiled, neatly decorated with a small upright piano, a miniature guitar and couch.

Reedy may not be well-known, but the band he manages the stage for is possibly one of the most well-known and loved bands in the world: U2.

Reedy, 55, has been in the business of stage management for bands for more than 30 years.

Reedy looks like an aged rocker himself. With shoulder-length gray hair, a black sweatshirt and jeans, Reedy embodies a cool music production guru.

With a hard-to-describe booming yet deep crooning voice, Reedy introduces himself quite simply: “I’m Rocko, I’m old enough to be your grandfather and I’m a stage manager.”
His experience as a stage manager began in the 1970s with the band Styx. The band, known for such songs as “Mr. Roboto” and “Come Sail Away,” hired Reedy while he was working at a local youth recreation center in his hometown of Chicago, as the tech for shows.

Since then, Reedy has been successful in his job as a stage manager. Stage managers are typically in charge of making sure everything is in its place, including the stage, crew, equipment and band.

“Right now I’m working with the Irish rock band U2,” Reedy said. “We’re on a six-month break, which started last November, and I’ll go back out with them in May.”
For U2’s 360° Tour, there were 200 tractor-trailers with stage equipment. Reedy was in charge of 50 of those trucks.
U2’s growing popularity can almost be attributed to help that Reedy gave them more than 30 years ago.

“I met those guys when I was touring in 1979 with the J. Geils Band, which was pretty popular at the time … and U2 came out and was our support act, our opening act, for about six weeks,” he said.
At the time, the U2 band members were in their late teens.
“They were horrible, they sucked, by their own admission,” Reedy said.
“There was just something about Bono and his stupid mullet haircut. And Edge is an amazing guitar player, and he was back then as a kid, but he played like nobody else had ever heard. And he used effects as an instrument itself, and I was very impressed with that as a guitar player,” Reedy said.
“I don’t think they had hotel rooms on show days, so they would come in while I’m loading in the equipment,” Reedy said. “They’d show up and I’d go, ‘Come on in,’ and I’d send them into catering to get ‘em something to eat, get ‘em a dressing room.”
“I was just nice to ‘em, as you are to anybody. I always try to encourage that. I go, ‘You never know who the next big thing is gonna be,'” Reedy said.
Yet, U2 was still a blossoming band on the verge of becoming famous.
U2 had big dreams that included its generous friend Reedy. “‘Someday you’re gonna work for us Rocko,'” he said, emulating the Irish accent of the band.
“So fast forward to 1990. I get a call from Paul McGuinness, their stage manager, goin’, ‘They can afford you now,'” Reedy said. And the rest is history.
When Reedy isn’t touring with U2, he looks for other jobs, or they come to him.
Reedy has worked with numerous bands including Journey, Def Leppard, Foreigner, Aerosmith and KISS, just to name a few.
“I haven’t worked with Paul McCartney, the one I really, really, really, really wanna do, but pretty much everybody else,” Reedy said humorously.
Off his beaten path of rock tours, Reedy has also worked with MC Hammer, “and it was the worst tour I ever did in my life,” he said. “We were doin’ six shows a week, and on the seventh day, we’d travel 1,000 miles.”
Back in his beautiful home, Reedy dotes on his wife, Hollee.
Reedy met her at, not surprisingly, an Aerosmith concert over 15 years ago at the Blossom Music Center, near Cleveland.
Since then, their relationship has grown stronger, even though Reedy may be gone on the road for months at a time.
“I think in many ways, the fact that I’m gone, and I come back, has helped our marriage,” he said. “‘Cause then you genuinely miss each other.”
“It makes the time that we do spend together … that much cooler,” said Reedy.
“She’s not just my wife who I love dearly, she’s my best friend, and it’s genuine there,” he said.
Reedy also has fun on the road, where he meets fellow “roadies,” or road crew members who help set up touring productions.
Along the way, he has met other roadies, who are also musicians. Reedy began a band called Rocko and the Devils. The band was even asked to open for U2 during one of their tours in Honolulu, Hawaii.
“I think Rocko’s history as a touring performer gives him a great edge as a production guru,” said Barbara Saito, 50, a concert promoter in San Diego, Calif. “He can find solutions and keep things on track like no one else I’ve worked with, and I’ve worked with the best in the business.”
Reedy is a multi-talented, multi-faceted man with a hard-working ethic, and the results to prove it.
Although he has traveled worldwide and visited hundreds of cities, Columbus is Reedy’s chosen hometown.
“I never in my wildest dreams imagined I would live in a house like this … But what I bought this house for I couldn’t have bought a trailer for in Chicago,” Reedy said. “The cost of living here is much less.”
That is not the only reason Reedy chose Columbus. When Hollee began law school at Ohio State, the plan was to move back to Chicago when she completed her degree.
Reedy sobered up at the end of the Aerosmith tour where he had met his wife. Columbus does not provide a source of temptation like a big city would. He didn’t know anyone in Columbus, and “the last thing I wanna go do when I’m home is go to a rock show,” he said.