Matt Bellamy made an NFT using Jeff Buckley’s 'Grace' Fender Telecaster – and it just sold for $26,000
Guiding Light (On Jeff’s Guitar) wasn't even the top seller in the massive charity auction
Muse man Matt Bellamy has raised $26,000 by auctioning off an NFT iteration of his solo track Guiding Light (On Jeff’s Guitar).
As alluded to in the song's full title, the track was recorded using a Fender Telecaster that was previously used by Jeff Buckley during the recording of his iconic record, Grace, and much of the acclaimed singer/songwriter’s live work.
It was last year, in a Guitar World exclusive, that Bellamy first revealed he had purchased Buckley's instrument via Matt’s Guitars in Paris, telling us he “had a whole team of people doing due diligence on it to make sure it was absolutely the right one… I managed to get it verified, and I’ve got his Telecaster that he recorded the whole Grace album with, and the song Hallelujah.”
Guiding Light is one of 10 songs from Bellamy’s new solo release Cryosleep, which was recently released on limited-edition 12” picture disc for Record Store Day.
Three of the tracks from that record - Guiding Light, Tomorrow’s World and Unintended - have now been auctioned off as NFTs via Cryptograph, with visuals from 3D artists and animators, including Liam Pannier, Leonardo Senas, Perry Cooper and Charlotte Risch.
Surprisingly for guitar geeks, Guiding Light, which sold for approx. $26,000 (just under 14 Ethereum), was not the top seller of the auction. The Tomorrow’s World NFT went for even more, at 14.5 Ethereum, or approx $27,300 at current cryptocurrency exchange rates.
Bellamy’s auctions have all helped to raise funds for UK homelessness charity The Passage.
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For Bellamy fans who missed out on the auction and the limited edition Record Store Day release (ie, most of us), you can hold tight for the full release of Cryosleep, which is due to land mid-August.
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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.
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