Smells Like Teen, Nevermind, In Utero… The guitar used to record these cult songs by the group Nirvana sold at auction at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square, New York, on Sunday May 22. The 1969 Fender Mustang was purchased by billionaire collector Jim Irsay, owner of American football team Indiana Polis Colt.
To acquire the instrument the businessman has to pay 4.5 million dollars, greatly exceeding the initial value estimated at 600,000 dollars. But the sale price did not exceed the current record, held by another guitar from the singer of Nirvana, which is around 6 million euros. Part of the proceeds from the sale will be donated to an association aiming to fight against the stigmatization of mental disorders.
You can see the instrument in the video clip of Smells Like Teen, in 1991, three before the suicide of Kurt Cobain. The clip features the singer strumming on the electric blue Fender in a smoky gymnasium. For the singer, this guitar was unique. He said in his last interview with Guitar World about this one: “I’m left-handed and it’s not very easy to find quality left-handed guitars at a reasonable price, but of all the guitars in the world, the Fender Mustang is my favorite. I’ve only owned two.”
The buyer is not at his first attempt. He is known for buying a black Strat from Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour for $3.9 million, the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia’s Tiger for nearly $1 million and Bob Dylan’s Strat for $965,000, according to the website guitar.com. He said he was happy to preserve the legacy of an American rock monument: “Kurt Cobain was as important an artistic and cultural force as any artist in the last 30 years. This auction pays tribute to the group Nirvana in rock music and popular culture. We are humbled and grateful that a portion of the proceeds from this auction benefit our efforts to bring visibility to psychiatric disorders.”
The proud 62-year-old owner plans to open a museum to display his collection. “History is so important,” he told guitar.com. “Much of who we are as humanity is connected to music. It’s been like that ever since the cavemen were around the fire and doodling on the walls, there was always this sense of self-expression… For me, it’s really important that the museum is alive. I want it to be interactive. Released in 1991, Smells Like Teen Spirit is considered one of the greatest songs in music history. The Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame added it to its list of songs that shaped rock ‘n’roll, while Rolling Stone magazine ranked it fifth on its list of the 100 Greatest Singles of Everyone. the temperature.
