‘Greatest stage-played’ guitars on display at Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A “pantheon of the greatest stage-played guitars of all time” will be on display in Nashville at the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum for a limited time.

Julien’s Auction will open its exhibition of some of the most iconic guitars played by some of music’s greatest on Wednesday, May 15.

The industry-leading memorabilia auction house returns to Music City with an arsenal of some of the most historically important and greatest guitars ever played on stage, screen, and in-studio courtesy of the “Music Icons” exhibition this week.

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Fans, guitar aficionados, and music collectors will have a chance to see the legendary guitars by rock gods John Lennon, Bob Dylan, as well as Robbie Robertson, Randy Bachman, Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols, and Mark Knopfler on this tour stop before they head to New York for their final exhibition and auction.

Featured among the iconic guitars will be Dylan and Robertson’s historic 1965 Fender Telecaster, Randy Bachman’s “American Woman” 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard, Steve Jones’ Sex Pistols 1974 Gibson Les Paul custom guitar, and Mark Knopfler’s 1987 Gibson Chet Atkins Country Gentleman Guitar, signed by Chet Atkins.

“This is really an important auction of not just guitars, but we have a little bit of everything and we’re blessed with the amount of history we have with these guitars and in that we’ve never put together a sale this important, with John Lennon, Prince, Robbie Robertson, Steve Jones,” said Darren Julien, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Julien’s Auctions. “To have this many iconic guitars come to the marketplace at one time is a rarity.”

Additionally, the exhibition will feature the historic reappearance of John Lennon’s long-lost Framus 12-string Hootenanny acoustic guitar that he used on the “Help!” album.

The guitar was thought lost to music history and long forgotten, but it was recently found in an attic in the UK after being unseen for more than 50 years. It was unveiled to the world by Julien’s Auctions at the London Hard Rock Cafe in Piccadilly Circus.

The guitar was heard and seen in the recording of The Beatles’ “Help!” album and film, as well as many of the Fab Four’s greatest hits from the 1960s. It is considered the most important Beatles guitar ever to come to market and is expected to make history not only as the highest-selling Beatles guitar but potentially the highest-selling guitar ever sold at auction this month.

Julien said the guitar was the one featured in the “Hide Your Love Away” music video and could easily sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars as a conservative estimate.

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His auction house holds the record for the most expensive guitar ever sold with Kurt Cobain’s MTV Unplugged Martin guitar. That guitar sold for $6 million, Julien said, adding he believed Lennon’s guitar is just as important to music history as Cobain’s.

“If there’s a guitar that’s going to break that world record, it’s this guitar,” he said.

Linda Chambers, CEO and Co-Founder of the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum, said she was grateful to see the museum put the guitars on display, as it was one way for the museum and historic Municipal Auditorium to feature some Beatles history.

“I love the history on all of these guitars and feel so fortunate that we’re able to exhibit these guitars, even if it is for a limited run,” she said. “Almost everyone has played upstairs in the Municipal Auditorium, except The Beatles. Now we have an opportunity to not only have a Beatles guitar that had not been seen for 50 years, but we recently inducted Ringo Starr, and then we also have an exhibit where George Harrison recorded in Nashville.”

While Nashville is known for country music, Chambers said musicians of all genres have used studio musicians in Nashville to record their albums.

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“Only having four days to exhibit these amazing guitars is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for a lot of people that are fans,” Chambers said. “Even if you’re not a fan of the musician, just a fan of the history of these iconic guitars, see them before they go to auction at the end of the month.”

The exhibition takes place for just four days, from May 15 to 18, at the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum, located at 401 Gay St., Nashville, TN 37219. The Hall of Fame is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. You can purchase tickets to the exhibition online HERE.

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