Kurt Cobain’s Smashed Nirvana-Signed Fender Guitar Sells For Nearly $600,000 at Auction”

An iconic piece of rock and roll history sold for $595,000 over the weekend.

One of music legend Kurt Cobain’s smashed guitars was auctioned off during the three-day “Music Icons” event held by Julien’s Auctions at the Hard Rock Café in New York. The left-handed Fender Stratocaster was destroyed on stage during Nirvana’s Nevermind era, then reconstructed and signed by all three members: Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl, and Krist Novoselic.

Along with the band members’ autographs, the piece bears an additional inscription to Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees. It reads, “Hell-o Mark! Love, Your Pal, Kurdt Kobain / Washed up rockstar.” Cobain gifted the guitar to Lanegan in 1992, according to the auction listing.

People tells us that the guitar, though unplayable, sold for nearly 10 its estimated value of $60,000. The phrase “Boddah Lives” is engraved on the neck plate, which refers to Kurt Cobain’s imaginary friend from childhood. The instrument includes a case with “Abort Christ” written on it.

Nirvana Relics Sold During “Music Icons” Auction

Another Nirvana artifact that went up for auction during the “Music Icons” event was a setlist from a landmark show at the OK Hotel in Seattle, Washington in 1991, where the band first played what would become their most well-known song, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” It sold for $50,800.

Assumed to have been written by Dave Grohl, the setlist appears in pink marker on the back of a flyer advertising guitar lessons. It reads, “Big Cheese, D-7, Love Buzz, Turn Around, Blew, Been a Son, Stain, Neg. Crepe, About a Girl, Immoodiuum, Floyd, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Verse Chorus Verse, Punk Rock Song, School Dive Sliver, In Bloom.”

Entertainment Weekly reports that, while the reassembled Fender Stratocaster may have sold for more than originally expected, it’s nothing compared to the prices that some of Cobain’s other guitars have fetched in the past. In 2020, the frontman’s 1959 Martin D-18E, which he played during his unforgettable performance on MTV Unplugged, sold for $6 million. Later, the 1969 Fender Mustang that appears in the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” music video brought in $4.5 million.

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