Kurt Cobain’s iconic Smells Like Teen Spirit guitar sold for a whopping $4.55 million after Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay won a bidding war.
The Nirvana frontman played the left-handed blue and white 1969 Fender Mustang to record the band’s seminal 1991 grunge anthem.
The electric guitar was also used by the tragic rock star in the music video for the song.
Kurt Cobain’s iconic Smells Like Teen Spirit guitar sold for a whopping $4.55 million after Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay won a bidding war
The Nirvana frontman played the left-handed blue and white 1969 Fender Mustang to record the band’s seminal 1991 grunge anthem
Indianapolis Colts owner Irsay, 62, who is worth an estimated $3.5 billion, is a major guitar collector
The instrument, which Cobain acquired in a Los Angeles guitar store in 1990, was later used in many of Nirvana’s live performances.
The guitar, case and strap sold for seven times its estimate of £500,000 at Julien’s Auctions in California, USA.
Cobain said of this in his final interview with Guitar World: “I’m left-handed and it’s not very easy to find quality left-handed guitars at reasonable prices.
“But out of all the guitars in the world, the Fender Mustang is my favorite. I’ve only owned two of them.’
The instrument, which Cobain acquired in a Los Angeles guitar store in 1990, was later used in many of Nirvana’s live performances
The guitar, case and strap sold for seven times its estimate of £500,000 at Julien’s Auctions in California, USA
Irsay, 62, who is worth an estimated $3.5 billion, is a major guitar collector, having purchased instruments previously owned by Elvis Presley, George Harrison, Prince, Bob Dylan and David Gilmour, among others.
He said, “I am thrilled to preserve and protect another piece of American culture that has changed the way we see the world.”
The Cobain family will donate a portion of the sale proceeds to a mental health initiative run by the Irsays, Kicking The Stigma.
Cobain committed suicide in 1994 at the age of 27.
The auctioneers said the sale of Cobain’s guitar was a “one off” event.
Darren Julien, Chief Executive Officer of Julien’s Auctions, said, “To bring this iconic guitar, one of the most culturally and historically significant guitars by Kurt Cobain and in all of rock music history, to return to Indiana to be a part of Jim Irsay’s celebrated work The Collecting memorabilia is a great honor and a personal highlight of my life.
“This one-off auction has been one of the greatest privileges of my professional career and I am delighted that the proceeds will also benefit much-needed attention to mental health awareness.”
Cobain’s acoustic guitar from Nirvana’s legendary 1993 “MTV Unplugged in New York” performance sold for a record $6 million in June 2020; seen in 1993
Nevermind, the band’s second album, has sold over 30 million copies worldwide.
Previously, Cobain’s acoustic guitar from Nirvana’s iconic 1993 MTV Unplugged performance in New York fetched a record-breaking $6 million at auction in June 2020.
The 1959 Martin D-18E – which was often out of tune – was expected to fetch between $1 million and $2 million at Julien’s Auctions’ online Music Icons auction, but it ended up breaking the record for most expensive guitar.
The lot came with the guitar case used by the late Smells Like Teen Spirit group frontman, which boasts a poster of Poison Idea’s album Feel the Darkness, while inside are a bunch of guitar strings, picks and a “stash” bag.
Kurt married Courtney Love of Hole in 1992; together they had daughter Frances Bean, who is now 27 years old.