LOS ANGELES, Oct 15 — Taylor Swift, Bradley Cooper and Keith Urban have donated guitars to a celebrity country music auction to raise funds for everyday workers in the industry whose livelihoods have been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Swift’s signed black Gibson acoustic guitar that she played for the live debut performance of her new song “betty” in September, comes along with nine of the singer’s custom picks in a lot that could fetch US$25,000 to US$40,000 (RM121,537 to RM194,459), Christie’s auction house said today.
The electric guitar Cooper played as washed-up country singer Jackson Maine in his 2018 film A Star is Born is also up for sale, with an estimate of US$2,000 to US$4,000.
The auction, starting today and running until October 29, will benefit the Academy of Country Music’s Lifting Lives Covid-19 Response Fund, which was created to support people behind the scenes in the country music industry centred around Nashville.
“When the pandemic hit in the spring, Nashville was hit pretty hard,” said Nancy Valentino from Christie’s business development department.
“This is one of the instances where you have the artists helping the people who work with them — tour bus drivers, roadies, session workers, caterers — no one is working,” she added.
Other auction items include a bedazzled dulcimer owned by Dolly Parton for 30 years (US$50,000 to US$100,000), Sheryl Crow’s vintage Baldoni accordion (US$8,000 to US$12,000), and guitars owned by Keith Urban, Dwight Yoakam, Blake Shelton and Vince Gill.
In addition to the instruments, Tim McGraw is auctioning his F131 Hellcat motorcycle, while Carrie Underwood donated the gown she wore to the Academy of Country Music awards show in Nashville in September.
“We were so impressed by how quickly artists volunteered to donate, and donated things that are so special to them,” Valentino said. — Reuters
