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And Finally Artist News
Jack White buys Edinburgh busker a new guitar, after his is smashed in the street
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 23 October 2020
Jack White has bought an Edinburgh busker a fancy new guitar, after his previous axe was smashed by a passer-by who, it is fair to say, was not a fan.
In an Instagram post immediately following the incident earlier this week, Matt Grant explained that he had been performing on Princes Street in Edinburgh when a woman approached him and apparently told him to stop playing. When he refused, she grabbed his guitar and broke it on the pavement.
“This lady came up, she started shouting in my face, swearing, telling me I wasn’t playing”, he said. “I told her to fuck off basically, I told her to go away and leave me alone … so she grabbed my guitar and threw it on the ground”.
Launching a GoFundMe page to raise money to replace the £300 instrument, he explained further: “The lady was a drunk. Often I don’t rise to people coming up and talking nonsense, but this lady was pushing it too far. She was in my face swearing and shouting at me. I told her to go away and she wasn’t having any of it. She grabbed my guitar and smashed it over the ground. The police intervened [and] she was arrested. But now I’m out of a guitar to busk with for the time being”.
News of the incident went viral, and within 24 hours Grant had raised over £4000. Shutting down the crowdfunder, he promptly went down to local instrument shop GuitarGuitar and purchased a new guitar. A happy ending to the story.
But that’s not the end of the story, is it? Because I think I said something about Jack White.
Yesterday, a new post appeared on Grant’s Instagram profile adding a whole new chapter to the story. “This morning I came into GuitarGuitar to pick up the new acoustic”, he explains. “Next thing I know I’m on the phone to Jack White’s manager who tells me Jack White has seen my GoFundMe page, feels bad for what happened and wants to buy me a new guitar”.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Grant says he explained that he’d already purchased a replacement guitar with the money he’d raised online, but was told, “Keep that one and get another one. Jack really wants to help'”.
“Flashforward: one kid in a candy shop later testing as many guitars as possible and I settle on a custom made Fender Stratocaster”, his Instagram post continues. “Absolute once in a million lifetimes thing happened today and I cannot thank Jack enough for his absolute generosity. Apparently he saw what happened and hit up his manager just this morning, who then amazingly tracked me down to the guitar shop just in time for me to walk out with this absolute beauty”.
That’s a £3600 guitar he got himself there. Probably best not take it out on the streets, just in case.
