A man paid $4,000 at an auction for a Taylor Swift guitar – only to immediately smash it to pieces with a hammer in front of his fellow bidders.
The acoustic guitar – which had a finish featuring pictures of Swift – was one of several lots up for auction in a fundraiser at the Ellis County Wild Game Dinner in Waxahachie, TX on September 28.
Now footage of the incident has emerged showing the winning bidder, having made clear his plans, heading to the podium and taking a hammer to the instrument. The lot came complete with a guitar hanger, but as the auctioneer quips, “I guess we don’t need the wall hanger.”
The assembled crowd mostly cheers his actions, but in other footage some of the audience can be heard shouting “no!”
The auction winner’s statement was likely a response to Swift endorsement of Kamala Harris as her preferred presidential candidate.
A spectator who was at the event, Rob Bartley, told The Independent: “When the man announced his intention to smash it the camera phones came out. It was unexpected, but not surprising. This part of Texas leans heavily conservative and the Biden/Harris administration isn’t held in high regard.”
Regardless of the politics, the instrument in question appears to have been a display model, created purely for novelty/souvenir value, as opposed to playing, so the stunt has likely not deprived us of a good old patriotic US build – or a guitar of the type actually used by Swift.
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Other lots available at the auction, which was held to raise funds for the local agricultural education non-profit, included a five day Black Bear hunt for two, a thermal hog hunt for three and tickets to see George Strait perform in Las Vegas.
Guitar World recently spoke to Gibson about Taylor Swift’s Eras tour guitars, her preferred J-180 build and got the definitive word on the mystery behind her pink/purple acoustic.
Matt is Features Editor for GuitarWorld.com. Before that he spent 10 years as a freelance music journalist, interviewing artists for the likes of Total Guitar, Guitarist, Guitar World, MusicRadar, NME.com, DJ Mag and Electronic Sound. In 2020, he launched CreativeMoney.co.uk, which aims to share the ideas that make creative lifestyles more sustainable. He plays guitar, but should not be allowed near your delay pedals.
