Keith Richards’ Gun-Blasted Acoustic Guitar Expected To Fetch Big At Auction

A prized guitar of Keith Richards that he shot a hole through is now up for auction. NME reported Richards blew a hole through his Gibson 1952 SJ Southern Jumbo sunburst acoustic guitar back in 1995 after he found bandmate Ron Wood in his Memphis hotel room playing it.

The New Jersey auction house Gotta Have Rock and Roll has reportedly received an opening bid of $150,000 and expects the axe to sell for up to $250,000. Bidding ends on Friday (August 20th). For more info, log on to: https://bit.ly/2W8Yfrt

According to the official listing for the guitar:

(Keith) Richards asked where (Ron) Wood got the guitar from, and Wood said he borrowed it from Mick Jagger. Richards was so mad that they took his guitar that he grabbed it, sandwiched it between two pillows, took out a gun and shot it. The guitar not only still has the hole, but also has remnants from one of the foam pillows used to silence it.

Richards owned and frequently played this acoustic guitar on stage during the Rolling Stones‘ 1995 “Totally Stripped” tour. He used this guitar during every single live performance of “Shine A Light” during the tour, and his use and love for the guitar are heavily documented in the Stones' Totally Stripped documentary.

Keith Richards revealed to us his standard for guitars these days — for both his classic “Open G” as well as the normal, standard tuning: “For the five-string stuff, I use Fender Telecasters. But for the six-string, I've always been interested in trying different guitars that turn up to me. Some are given and some are found for me by Pierre (de Beauport), my guitar man. Pierre knows what interests me. So the Gibson (335), hell, the black Gibson I've been using a lot — it's a lovely guitar. But I really like. . . y'know, sometimes you get a Gretsch, sometimes I get something that somebody's handmade themselves. I just love to experiment, really.”