The Pink Floyd frontman will auction off his iconic Black Strat and other famous instruments for charity
More than half a century after he joined Pink Floyd, David Gilmour will be auctioning off about 120 of the iconic guitars he played both with the band and on his solo releases. “Everything has got to go,” he jokes. “It’s the spring sale.”...MORE
The instruments that will be on the auction block at Christie’s New York headquarters this June include many of his signature instruments. He’ll be selling the Black Strat — a guitar he played on “Money,” “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and “Comfortably Numb” and enough other songs that it has amassed a legacy worthy of its own book — as well as his Stratocaster with the serial number 0001, the 12-string he wrote “Wish You Were Here” on and the Ovation six-string he’s played “Comfortably Numb” on at almost every live performance he’s done.
“These guitars have been very good to me,” he tells Rolling Stone on a phone call from his home in England. “They’re my friends. They have given me lots of music. I just think it’s time that they went off and served someone else. I have had my time with them. And of course the money that they will raise will do an enormous amount of good in the world, and that is my intention.”The auction’s proceeds will benefit Gilmour’s charitable foundation, which he’s been running for decades. “The money will be going to the larger needs of famine relief, homelessness and displacement of people throughout the world,” Gilmour says, adding that the charities are both global and U.K.-centric. “We are going to work on the best way and the best balance of making what this raises do as much good on this planet as it can.”
In addition to helping out those less fortunate than him, Gilmour sees the sale as a matter of cleaning house. In fact, he’s been planning on selling of chunks of his collection since at least around 1987’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason but hasn’t gotten around to it. “I didn’t want to get too ancient and have a whole stash of guitars sitting around doing nothing,” he says. “And frankly, too many of them are guitars I just don’t have time to play often enough. They will give joy to other people.”
What sparked the idea to sell these guitars? Were you just looking around a room and you thought, “There are too many of them”?
