“What happened was, when Bowie came over [to America], and Mott the Hoople came over and Roxy, they didn’t really like us on the Coast much…When we went to Cleveland, that was the first time we sold a club out, and it was the same for David and it was the same for Roxy…And at the same time, Carson would be on and Mike Douglas and people like this, Merv Griffin, and Cleveland was kinda like the Poland of America, and I didn’t like that, ’cause we thought we were cool, and we thought the coolest place was Cleveland, so I wrote the song [“Cleveland Rocks”].”

Ian Hunter on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, 13 June 2007