Jay Lustig/The Star-Ledger

This was written for the newspaper and I had limited space, so I couldn't mention everything, but yes, that would have been a good one. One of those shows was the first Springsteen concert I ever reviewed!

I believe one of the other interesting things about those shows was that the tour did not have any Jersey stops, so for North Jersey fans that was basically the only opportunity to see show.

If I had more space I would have also included the 1993 show where he berated fans for booing Terence Trent D'Arby, and the 2000 shows featured in the "Live in New York City" CD and DVD.

We think the world of Les Paul and will undoubtedly include him in a future class of the Rock & Pop Hall of Fame. But to say "without Les Paul there would be no electric guitar" is really overstating it, and ignoring the huge contributions of others, such as Adolph Rickenbacker and Leo Fender.

This is the reason he was not in the first class: He is originally from Wisconsin, and did his most important work, as an inventor and as a recording artist, before moving to New Jersey. While living in New Jersey, he did most of his performing in New York City.

Yes he lived in New Jersey for a long time, but we were really looking for people who grew up here and/or were integral parts of the NJ music scene. That said, we feel his huge contributions to the music world do make him a shoo-in to the hall. Just not in this first year.

Paul Simon was indeed born in Newark but his family moved away when he was about 1 and he has absolutely no memories of his time here. Thus while he's technically a New Jersey native his connection is pretty tenuous.

Most of the comments have been made here: http://bit.ly/xStJgI

Well, Bernie Worrell is in the hall, as a member of P-Funk. See here: http://bit.ly/xStJgI.

We weren't really considering, this year, people who are already in as parts of other groups, but perhaps we will in the future.

Well, Bernie Worrell is in the hall, as a member of P-Funk. See here: http://bit.ly/xStJgI.

We weren't really considering, this year, people who are already in as parts of other groups, but perhaps we will in the future.

Well, Bernie Worrell is in the hall, as a member of P-Funk. See here: http://bit.ly/xStJgI.

We weren't really considering, this year, people who are already in as parts of other groups, but perhaps we will in the future.

We did include them in our list of bands to consider in the future (look here: http://bit.ly/FO4cLD). But we were definitely looking for artists with more mainstream recognition for this first class, though.

We limited it to performers this year but are considering broadening to include venues, club owners and other things (radio people, record company owners, etc.) in the future, in which case Johnny Dirt and/or the club itself would definitely be candidates.

Well, at the moment we're not really considering people who are already in as part of a group, but maybe in the future.

As I mention in article, one of our criteria is "Jerseyness." In regard to their "Jerseyness," the Smithereens are ahead of Smith and Harry (who both grew up here but are much more identified with New York) and Paul (who grew up and initially became famous elsewhere and, though he lived here for many years, did most of his performing in NY).

The Jonas Brothers: Agreed, they really don't deserve serious consideration at this point.

Venues and promoters ... we have given some thought to that. Maybe in the future.