In the “you never know who’s paying attention to you online” department, an Edinburgh, Scotland-based busker who had his instrument smashed on the street received a new electric guitar courtesy of none other than Jack White, who read about his plight via a GoFundMe page.
The busker in question, Matt Grant, set up the GoFundMe to raise money for a new instrument after, as he described it, “the worst thing that could have happened happened. Someone came up while I was busking and smashed my guitar.”
He continued, “The lady was drunk. Often I don’t rise to people coming up and talking nonsense but this lady was pushing it too far. She was in my face swearing and shouting at me. I told her to go away and she wasn’t having any of it.
“She grabbed my guitar and smashed it over the ground. The police intervened [and] she was arrested. But now I'm out of a guitar to busk with for the time being.”
The GoFundMe was a success, with Grant purchasing a new Sigma acoustic.
But what happened next was even more of a welcome surprise.
“This morning I came into GuitarGuitar Edinburgh to pick up the new acoustic,” Grant wrote on Instagram.
“Next thing I know I'm on the phone to @officialjackwhitelive's manager who tells me Jack White has seen my GoFundMe page, feels bad for what happened and wants to buy me a new guitar.
“Flash-forward one kid in a candy shop later testing as many guitars as possible and I settle on a #custommade #fenderstratocaster.”
You can check out the Fender Custom Shop Strat above.
“Absolute once in a million lifetimes thing happened today and I cannot thank Jack enough for his absolute generosity,” Grant wrote. “Apparently he saw what happened and hit up his manager just this morning, who then amazingly tracked me down to the guitar shop just in time for me to walk out with this absolute beauty.
“Thanks Jack. I'd love to thank you personally one day, you're a legend.”
For more information on the saga, check out Grant’s official Instagram page.
“When I joined, Ozzy told me I'd often hear people scream out Randy's name during a show”: Zakk Wylde discusses Ozzy Osbourne's hard-and-fast guitar rules, and the friendly shadows of Randy Rhoads and Jake E. Lee, in his first Guitar World interview
“People might look and think I’m just this TikTok personality. They don’t know that I’ve been playing since 2010”: Kiki Wong recalls her early guitar career – and the “crazy” bootleg tours with three people sleeping in the back of a truck
