Iconic Kurt Cobain guitar will be auctioned to benefit Irsay family’s Kicking the Stigma initiative
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — May is Mental Health Awareness Month and the Irsay family is kicking it off by welcoming Julien’s Auctions to Indianapolis, along with a guitar used by grunge icon Kurt Cobain.
Cobain played the left-handed 1969 Fender Mustang electric guitar in the music video for Nirvana’s breakout 1991 single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
Julien’s Auctions will auction the iconic left-handed Fender later this month during its Music Icons auction in New York.
A portion of the proceeds from the sale will benefit Kicking the Stigma, the Irsay family’s initiative to raise awareness about mental health disorders and remove the stigma often associated with these illnesses.
In his final interview with Guitar World before his death, Cobain said of the guitar: “I’m left-handed, and it’s not very easy to find reasonably priced, high-quality left-handed guitars. But out of all the
guitars in the whole world, the Fender Mustang is my favorite.”
The conservative starting estimate for the iconic instrument is $600,000 to $800,000.