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Tracy Chapman (born March 30, 1964) in Cleveland, Ohio, is an American singer-songwriter, widely known for her hit singles “Fast Car” (1988) and “Give Me One Reason” (1995). She began playing guitar and writing songs at age eight. She says that she may have been first inspired to play the guitar by the television show Hee Haw which had host Roy Clark who was a highly regarded guitarist, banjo player, and fiddler.

She graduated from Wooster School in Connecticut then attended Tufts University, majoring in Anthropology.

With Elektra Records she released Tracy Chapman in 1988. “Fast Car” became a No. 6 pop hit on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending August 27, 1988. Rolling Stone ranked the song at number 167 on their 2010 list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time“.

In October 2018, she sued the rapper Nicki Minaj over copyright infringement, alleging that Minaj had sampled her song “Baby Can I Hold You” without permission. In January 2021, the dispute was settled when Minaj paid Chapman $450,000.

When Luke Combs’ version of her song “Fast Car” hit number one on the Country Airplay chart in July 2023, Chapman became the first Black woman to score a country number one with a solo composition.

She has been involved with Cleveland’s elementary schools, producing an educational music video highlighting achievements in African-American history. She sponsored “Crossroads in Black History”, an essay contest for high school students in Cleveland and other cities.

Ingram was born in Akron, Ohio in February of 1952, where he attended Akron’s East High School and received a track scholarship to the University of Akron. He moved to Los Angeles in 1973 and played with the band Revelation Funk.

He was a two-time Grammy Award-winner and a two-time Academy Award nominee for Best Original Song. After beginning his career in 1973, Ingram charted eight top 40 hits on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart from the early 1980s until the early 1990s, as well as thirteen top 40 hits on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. In addition, he charted 20 hits on the Adult Contemporary chart (including two number-ones). He had two number-one singles on the Hot 100: the first, a duet with fellow R&B artist Patti Austin, 1982’s “Baby, Come to Me (YouTube)” topped the U.S. pop chart in 1983. 

“I Don’t Have the Heart“, which became his second number-one in 1990 was his only number-one as a solo artist.

Ingram provided the vocals to “Just Once (YouTube)” and “One Hundred Ways” on Quincy Jones’s 1981 album The Dude, which earned Ingram triple Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist. In October 1990, he scored a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with the love ballad “I Don’t Have the Heart”, from his It’s Real album.

Ingram died of brain cancer in Los Angeles on January 29, 2019, at the age of 66.

Cohn was born on July 5, 1959, in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated from Beachwood High School in Beachwood, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb. When he was in junior high school, he played and sang with a local band called Doanbrook Hotel. While attending Oberlin College, he taught himself to play the piano. He transferred to UCLA and began to perform in Los Angeles-area coffeehouses.

Cohn released his debut solo album, Marc Cohn, in February 1991. The album was successful due to the hit single “Walking in Memphis“, which was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Pop Vocal at the 34th Annual Grammy Awards. The song is autobiographical and shares Cohn’s experience visiting Memphis, Tennessee in 1985. “Walking in Memphis” reached number 13 in 1991 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

Cohn won the 1992 Grammy Award for Best New Artist.

Cohn and ABC News journalist Elizabeth Vargas married on July 20, 2002. The pair met at the 1999 U.S. Open after Vargas sought an interview with Cohn’s friend, Andre Agassi. Cohn and Vargas divorced in 2014.

On August 7, 2005, Cohn was shot in the head during an attempted carjacking in Denver, Colorado, while on a concert tour with Suzanne Vega. A police spokesperson surmised that the car’s windshield may have significantly impeded the bullet’s force, and added: “Frankly, I can’t tell you how he survived.”

Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN, stylized as NIИ, is an industrial rock band formed in Cleveland in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent collaborator, Atticus Ross.

While living in Cleveland in 1987, Trent Reznor played keyboards in the Exotic Birds, a synthpop band managed by John Malm Jr. Reznor became friends with Malm, who informally became his manager when he left to work on his own music. At the time, Reznor was employed as an assistant engineer and janitor at Right Track Studios. Studio owner Bart Koster granted Reznor free access to the studio between bookings to record demos, commenting that it cost him nothing more than “a little wear on [his] tape heads”. Unable to find a band that could articulate the material as he desired, Reznor was inspired by Prince to play all instruments himself except drums, which he programmed electronically. He has continued to play most parts on Nine Inch Nails recordings ever since.

The first Nine Inch Nails performance took place at the Phantasy Theater in Lakewood, Ohio, on October 21, 1988.

Nine Inch Nails were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020.

🎸 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2020

Brian Hugh Warner was born in Canton, Ohio, on January 5, 1969. He attended Heritage Christian School from first to tenth grade. He later transferred to GlenOak High School and graduated in 1987.

After relocating with his parents, he enrolled at Broward Community College in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1990. He was working toward a degree in journalism, gaining experience in the field by writing articles for the music magazine 25th Parallel. He also interviewed musicians and soon met several of the musicians to whom his own work was later compared, including Groovie Mann from My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor became his mentor and produced his debut album.

The band was formed in 1989 by Warner and guitarist Scott Putesky, with Warner writing lyrics and Putesky composing the majority of music. Warner adopted the stage name Marilyn Manson and, alongside a revolving lineup of musicians, recorded the band’s first demo tape as Marilyn Manson & the Spooky Kids in 1990.

Their second studio album, 1996’s Antichrist Superstar, sparked a fierce backlash among Christian fundamentalists. The album was an immediate commercial success, debuting at number three on the Billboard 200 and selling almost 2 million copies in the United States alone, and 7 million copies worldwide. 

Lead single “The Beautiful People” received three nominations at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, where the band also performed.

Grohl was born in Warren, Ohio, on January 14, 1969, the son of teacher Virginia Jean (Hanlon) and news writer James Harper Grohl. When he was a child, Grohl’s family moved to Springfield, Virginia.

He founded the rock band Foo Fighters, of which he is the lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter. From 1990 to 1994, he was the drummer of the band Nirvana.

In October 1994, after the 1994 suicide of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, he went into the studio to record 15 of his own songs. With the exception of a guitar part on “X-Static”, Grohl played every instrument and sang every vocal.

Grohl hoped to stay anonymous and release the recordings in a limited run under the name Foo Fighters, taken from foo fighter, a World War II term for unidentified flying objects. He hoped the name would lead listeners to assume the music was made by several people. He said later: “Had I actually considered this to be a career, I probably would have called it something else, because it’s the stupidest fucking band name in the world.”

Dave Grohl – Alley

Dedicated to Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer, David Grohl, this roadway runs parallel to Market Street in downtown Warren. Home to the world’s largest drum sticks, its west entrance sits next to the Burger King Restaurant on Main Street SW. Grohl, who was born in Warren and later moved to Alexandria, VA at an early age, still has family here and spent many summer vacations in the area. The alley features murals of the musician painted by different local artists.

The Foo Fighters released their second album, The Colour and the Shape, in May 1997. The album included the singles “Monkey Wrench”, “Everlong” and “My Hero“.

The Foo Fighters were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021. YouTube – Foo Fighters perform at Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

🎸 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2021

Dave Grohl shouts out Ohio at 3:50…

Natalie McIntyre was born in Canton, Ohio in September of 1967. A childhood bicycle mishap resulted in her noticing a mailbox of a man named Macy Gray; she used the name in stories she wrote and later decided to use it as her stage name.

Gray attended elementary school with Brian Warner (later known as musician Marilyn Manson) although they did not know each other. She attended more than one high school, including a boarding school which asked her to leave due to her behavior. She attended the University of Southern California and studied scriptwriting. Gray has released ten studio albums, and received five Grammy Award nominations, winning one. She has appeared in a number of films, including Training Day, Spider-Man, Scary Movie 3, Lackawanna Blues, Idlewild, For Colored Girls, and The Paperboy. Gray is best known for her international hit single “I Try“, taken from her multi-platinum debut album On How Life Is. Gray was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2014 in her hometown of Canton, Ohio.