Closing Guitar - 25 Years

Green glitter guitar with a purple banner ribbon wrapped around.  Ribbon says "25 Years 1995-2020"  in gold writting.

Las Vegas' Hard Rock Hotel & Casino will close its doors Feb. 3, capping 25 years of rockin' memories .  After that, the doors will be locked until the rebranded property reopens in late fall.

So what happened in those two and a half decades? The brand's love of Las Vegas started before the hotel opened.

Sept. 7, 1990: Aerosmith launched the opening of the city's first Hard Rock Cafe, a stand-alone building at the corner of Harmon Avenue and Paradise Road. The cafe opened Sept. 7, and the concert was held the next day inside a big tent at the site.  June 5, 1991: Plans to build a resort are announced.  March 10, 1995: The resort debuts as the first Hard Rock branded hotel in the U.S.  Hollywood stars at the opening include Pamela Anderson, Jim Belushi, Halle Berry, Nicolas Cage, Kelsey Grammer, Tommy Lee and James Woods. Two of the resorts original restaurants, Mr. Lucky's and Pink Taco, remain.   June 27, 2002: On the eve of a concert tour by the Who, bass guitar player John Entwistle is found dead in his hotel room at Hard Rock. The coroner determined that Entwistle died of a heart attack caused by cocaine use.  2004: Rehab Beach Club opens, pioneering the idea of a daytime club and forever changing the city's party scene.   Dec. 28. 2009: The all-suite HRH Tower welcomes its first guests with luxury accommodations including seven penthouses, eight spa villas and 359 suites.  2011: The resort gets its star turn when MTV's reality show "The Real World" is set inside a 5,000-square-foot, three-bedroom penthouse at the resort.  The suite would later be renamed the Penthouse Real World Suite.  Dec. 31, 2016: The hotel's signature cafe closes, leaving just one Hard Rock Cafe on the Strip.  August-September 2017: Over two weeks, the iconic over-sized guitar that towered above the cafe is removed. The piece, inspired by Pete Townshend's No. 9 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe, featured strings made of neon. It is now displayed at the city's Neon Museum.   March 30, 2018: Branson announces he has bought the resort and will rebrand it as part of Virgin Hotels.   Oct. 14, 2018: The Rehab day club holds its final bash and splash.  Nov. 18, 2019: Demolition of the stand-alone Hard Rock Cafe gets underway.

Farewell to the history, we all have our memories, we will never forget this icon.