The myth remains. The guitar used by American singer Kurt Cobain during his last concert with his rock band Nirvana was sold at auction for more than $1.5 million (around €1.37 million), it was announced on Friday (November 17) , the auction house Julien’s Auctions.
This left-handed Fender Mustang was the Nirvana frontman’s “favorite” guitar, which he played on the band’s final tour in 1993-94, she said in a statement. With its sky blue patina, the instrument up for auction in Nashville, Tennessee, is intact, unlike many guitars broken on stage by the grunge legend. In May, a black Fender Stratocaster smashed by the singer fetched $595,000 at auction at New York’s Hard Rock Cafe.
After having marked a generation within Nirvana with hits like Smells Like Teen Spirit or Come as You Are, during a career marked by his addiction to heroin and his complex relationship with Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain had committed suicide in April 1994, aged 27.
An Eric Clapton guitar also sold
Julien’s Auctions also sold another Eric Clapton guitar on Thursday, for nearly $1.3 million. Nicknamed “The Fool,” this Gibson SG is strongly associated with the singer’s time with the band Cream, where he produced one of rock’s most distinctive sounds.
Its personalized decoration, in psychedelic style, makes the instrument one of the most easily recognizable in rock and a symbol of the “Summer of Love”, the counterculture movement of 1967 which marked a generation.
Eric Clapton, whose riffs on songs like Layla and Sunshine of Your Love earned him the reputation of being one of the best guitarists in the world, began using the instrument during the band’s first US tour. Cream.