Jerry Garcia’s Legendary Wolf Guitar Sells for $1.9 Million at Auction
Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, June 1, 2017
Jerry Garcia, right, being handed a joint by some hippies, back in the day. (Credit Image: © Jeff Goode/Toronto Star/ZUMA Press)
Jerry Garcia’s famous Wolf guitar sold at auction for over $1.9 million Wednesday, AP reports. “Wolf” was Garcia’s go-to instrument for over two decades. The Grateful Dead singer-guitarist first wielded the instrument during a 1973 show for the Hell’s Angels in New York City.
Brian Halligan, Chief Executive of software company HubSpot and an avid Deadhead purchased the guitar at a Guernsey’s auction benefiting the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) at New York’s Brooklyn Bowl. Halligan’s bid was also matched with a $1.6 million donation, raising $3.2 million total for the SPLC. The $1.9 million price Halligan paid included a $300,00 buyer’s premium.
In an e-mail to Rolling Stone, Halligan says the auction was a chance to “indulge two passions of mine at the same time: Social justice and the Grateful Dead.” The CEO praised the work of the Southern Poverty Law Center and also discussed his unique affinity for the Grateful Dead, who inspired his 2010 book with David Meerman Scott, Marketing Lessons From the Grateful Dead.
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Editor’s Note: Feeling angry? Listen to this (profane) old punk song:
