{"id":120781,"date":"2025-08-05T11:51:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T11:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/120781\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T11:51:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T11:51:16","slug":"rolling-stones-star-battles-museum-for-honky-tonk-guitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/120781\/","title":{"rendered":"Rolling Stones star battles museum for honky tonk guitar"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Rolling Stones were \u00adworking on their album Exile on Main St in 1971 near Nice, burglars stole eight guitars from the Villa Nellc\u00f4te, in Villefranche-sur-Mer, where the band were staying. Among them, as some \u00adaccounts suggest, a distinctive 1959 \u00adGibson Les Paul.<\/p>\n

At the time it was used by Mick Taylor, now 76, the Stones\u2019 guitarist. Then it seemed to have disappeared until the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York announced in May it had been given a collection of 500 guitars \u2014 \u00adincluding a 1959 sunburst Les Paul.<\/p>\n

The guitar, one of a number made by the Gibson company that came to be known as \u201cbursts\u201d because of their gleaming sunburst finish, is also \u00adreferred to as the \u201cKeithburst\u201d because it had initially belonged to Keith \u00adRichards<\/a>, now 81. Shortly after the Met\u2019s \u00adannouncement, representatives for Taylor<\/a> said he was surprised the guitar found its way into the collection after its disappearance. <\/p>\n

\"Keith<\/p>\n

The guitar on display at Christie\u2019s in New York City in 2004<\/p>\n

SPENCER PLATT\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Marlies Damming, Taylor\u2019s manager, told Page Six: \u201cThere are numerous photos of Mick Taylor playing this Les Paul, as it was his main guitar until it disappeared. The interesting thing about these vintage Les Pauls [from the late 1950s], is that they are renowned for their flaming \u2026 which is unique, like a fingerprint.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the Met has since claimed that according to its own research Taylor never owned the guitar and that it has had a public record for decades. The guitar went up for auction at Christie\u2019s in 2004 and it was featured in a Met \u00adexhibition in 2019, the museum added. <\/p>\n

A Met spokesman said: \u201cThis guitar has a long and well-documented history of ownership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Its exact provenance has been the source of contention. It starts with \u00adconfusion about who owned it before Richards bought it at Selmer\u2019s music store in London. Varying versions name either John Bowen, who played with Mike Dean & the Kinsmen, or Ken Lundgren of the Outlaws. <\/p>\n

\"Black<\/p>\n

Mick Taylor in 1968<\/p>\n

JORGEN ANGEL\/REDFERNS<\/p>\n

In any case by 1964 it was in Richards\u2019s possession and he played it during the Rolling Stones\u2019 first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show that same year. Four years later Taylor, who was then still playing with John Mayall\u2019s Bluesbreakers, bought it from Ian Stewart, the Stones\u2019 road manager. <\/p>\n

\u2022 Ranked: the 10 best Rolling Stones songs<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Taylor previously said: \u201cI met Ian Stewart, their roadie who also plays piano. I met him, and I told him I was looking for a Les Paul, because the other one had been stolen. And he said: \u2018Well, we\u2019ve got one for sale. Come to the studio and have a look at it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

A year later, Taylor joined the Rolling Stones and frequently used the Les Paul on stage, including during his 1969 Hyde Park debut with the band. Then the provenance gets murky. <\/p>\n

Andy Babiuk, the author of Rolling Stones Gear, a 700-page anthology of Stones instruments, claims Taylor\u2019s 1959 Gibson Les Paul was among the eight guitars stolen in 1971. <\/p>\n

However, the Met argues that \u00adaccording to its research the guitar was not taken in that theft and was still owned by Richards at the time. Its provenance lists Adrian Miller as the owner in 1971, although it does not say how he \u00adacquired it. In the same year it was sold to Cosmo Verrico, of the rock band Heavy Metal Kids.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Mick Jagger\u2019s \u00a35.5m Marylebone flat \u2014 buy a part of rock history<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

In recent decades the guitar was put up for auction on multiple occasions and, about ten years ago, was acquired by Dirk Ziff, an investor and billionaire. In May, it was among 500 guitars given to the Met by Ziff, which also included Leo Fender\u2019s first guitar made in 1948, a Gibson 1955 J-50 acoustic guitar used by Delta blues musician Mississippi John Hurt, and the \u201cFutura\u201d guitar owned by blues guitarist Ponty Gonzalez in about 1956.<\/p>\n

Taylor has been asked for comment.<\/p>\n

The Met said it had not heard from Taylor nor his representatives about the issue. However, Damming told The Times in a statement: \u201cIt would appear that the Metropolitan Museum has not acknowledged receipt of messages from Taylor\u2019s legal counsel, and they have not responded to his request for inspection of the guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Rolling Stones were \u00adworking on their album Exile on Main St in 1971 near Nice, burglars…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":120782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[171,975,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-120781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114976016513108029","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}