There’s no doubt that Bob Moog had a massive influence on music by making synthesizers popular and accessible, and now there’s a dedicated place to pay homage to his legacy. The Bob Moog Foundation has opened the Moogseum, a museum in Asheville, North Carolina that includes static and interactive exhibits devoted to its namesake’s synths as well as other electronic instruments.
Visiting Asheville, North Carolina, in December, I walked past a sandwich board that read, “Synth you’re here, come on in.” It was a pop-up store selling T-shirts, mugs, and other memorabilia commemorating one of the town’s most famous citizens, electronic music pioneer Bob Moog.
Robert Moog was a game-changing electronic music pioneer and the father of four children (and one step-daughter), including daughter Michelle Moog-Koussa, executive director of the Moogseum, a brand-new facility opening on what would have been Moog’s 85th birthday, Thursday (May 23), in Moog’s adopted hometown of Asheville, N.C.
Leading up to one of the earliest Bele Chere festivals — the street party took place in downtown Asheville 1979-2013 — a couple of local musicians decided to reach out to Robert Moog.
Music facilitated and inspired by the late inventor Bob Moog can be heard all over the world, but Western North Carolina can rightly claim to be its historic base, as he lived out his last decades in the Asheville area.