Released 40 years ago on October 2nd, 1984, the Replacements’ Let It Be is frequently regarded as not only one of the band’s best, but also as one of the greatest indie albums of all time.
Even separate from the music, the cover image has taken on a life of its own. Showcasing the band’s original four members sitting on a suburban rooftop, with teenage bassist Tommy Stinson wiping his eye, it has become the portrait of the Replacements.
“The ‘Roof Picture’ is without question my most well-known and asked about image,” says the artist behind it, famed Minneapolis music photographer Daniel Corrigan. Its fame wasn’t planned, though: “I don’t think anyone noticed us at all. It was just the five of us up there. No lights or any kind of gear, and we weren’t up there for much longer than five minutes.”
Intended or not, the photo remains beloved by Replacements’ fans, inspiring them to make pilgrimages to its location, 2215 Bryant Ave. S. Also the former home to two of the band’s members, Tommy and Bob Stinson, it has become a holy Minneapolis-based indie-rock site. People show up almost daily to take selfies and film videos outside. I write this not only based on online evidence but also from firsthand experience: I’ve gone twice, and both times I ran into more fans than when I went the first time. If you love the band—and we Replacements obsessives are legion—visiting is a rite of passage.
But what if you don’t love the band? What if this house just happens to be your home?
That’s the case of 2215 Bryant’s current owner, Michael Woell. When he bought the house back in 2006, he had no idea what he was moving into. Or, as Woell puts it, “I didn’t know who the Replacements were, to be honest.” Before purchasing the place, the seller did disclose the address’ musical legacy; it just didn’t mean much to Woell. “I grew up in a musical family, but my two older brothers? One of them was into Alice in Chains, Nirvana, and kind of that scene, while my oldest brother was a Deadhead and into jazz,” he shares. “So yeah, I didn’t know who the Replacements were, even though I grew up only 15, 20 minutes south of Minneapolis.”
In the years since, Woell has become abundantly aware of the band. The block has caught him up on the house’s history, particularly one neighbor across the street who used to party with Bob Stinson. According to his stories, via Woell, “They used to jump off the roof [from Let It Be’s cover] and into a tree that was on the property back in the day.” Tommy Stinson himself came by and chatted with Woell too, back in 2013, when the A.V. Club arrived at Woell’s house to do a piece on what Stinson refers to as “his Mom’s old house.”
Mostly, though, Woell gets to know the Replacements through folks like me: the ever-dedicated, still-growing fans who show up unannounced when passing through the Twin Cities. Thankfully, even if this isn’t what Woell signed up for, he accepts it in stride, graciously describing us fans as “extremely dedicated.” He continues, “I just let ’em just do their thing. It’s a little bit of a mini-invasion of privacy, but I mean, I understand that it’s a historic house for the people who are into the Replacements.” That’s why Woell allowed music video directors Eric Kassel and Peter Hilgendorf to film a video for “Taking a Ride” outside of the house in 2021 (to accompany an anniversary re-release of the band’s debut album).
“People come by all the time to take photos of it, but they’re just here for 2, 3, 5, 10 minutes. It’s something you get used to,” Woell offers with a laughing shrug. Every once in a while, Woell does have to deal with somebody asking if they can go on the roof—to which he always says no—but overall he says, “I haven’t had any strange interactions with anybody.”
What does surprise Woell is how far fans travel just to see the house. He’s had whole families visit from states all across America, usually as part of what he refers to as “the Replacements tour,” which also includes the band’s most frequent musical venues, drinking venues, and “the bench where Bob [Stinson] used to hang out.” Visitors have also included the occasional celebrity, like Green Day’s Mike Dirnt, which Woell admits is “kind of cool.”
The initial shock has worn off, and now, Woell chooses to embrace his responsibility in keeping up this piece of rock history. “It’s cool to have a historic property,” he explains. “It’s been a unique experience.” He also has gone the extra mile to mark where the Let It Be cover photo was shot. “I was able to secure funding from a neighborhood revitalization program, so I had some stained glass windows put above the square window that is essentially a replica of the album cover,” Woell describes. “I was trying to kinda preserve that component of Replacement’s history into the house itself.” He also had the facade around the windows repainted and restored by local experts TigerOx Painting.
Of course, while Woell gets to regularly witness Replacements fans live their dream of seeing his house, the iconic rock ‘n’ roll location he most wants to make a pilgrimage to is “probably the Beatles’ Abbey Road.” In the meantime, he will dare to continue his role as the keeper of the Replacements’ Let It Be house.
