A guitar played – and smashed – by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain has auctioned off for nearly half a million dollars.
The 1973 Fender Mustang was used during Nirvana’s first U.S. tour in 1989 – years before they broke big with “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. Cobain smashed it during a July 9th show in Wilkinsburg, PA.
It sold at last weekend’s ‘Icons and Idols: Rock N’ Roll’ auction for a total of $486,400 – more than twice the expected sale price of $200,000.
Sharing insight about the guitar, Sluggo Cawley of the band Hullabaloo, said Cobain was at his apartment when he wanted to repair the smashed Gibson SG so he could perform with it and potentially smash it again at a later date.
“Kurt asked me if he could have the smashed Gibson SG I had hanging on my wall. So I said, Sure, but now I won’t have one for my wall,” Cawley told Innocent Words magazine. “Kurt replied, ‘I’ll be right back.’ He went out to their van and presented me a 1973 Fender Mustang that he deemed beyond repair…In sort of mock guitar hero worship, I asked him to sign it for me.”
Along the guitar, Cobain inscribed, “Yo Sluggo / Thank for the trade/ If its illegal to Rock and Roll, then throw my ass in jail/ Nirvana.”
Kurt additionally drew two flowers along with his signature.