Chuck Berry destroyed multiple guitars because he loved driving Cadillac convertible cars: “He lets the top down and the mechanism crushes the case”
Chuck Berry was pretty damn protective of his instruments – in fact, he once punched Keith Richards in the face just because the Rolling Stones guitarist touched his guitar. However, despite his efforts fiercely defending his guitars, nothing could protect them from his love of Cadillacs.
You might be wondering how a convertible Cadillac could possibly pose a threat to Berry’s Gibson guitar babies. Well, the top of a convertible car doesn’t just disappear – it folds up into the boot. And, if you’re an absentminded guitarist, sometimes that boot contains your shiny new axe…
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In a new interview with Guitarist, Berry’s son, Chuck Berry Jr, explains how his father crushed at least two guitars in the boot of his Cadillacs. One poor victim was one of Berry’s Gibson ES-330s. “My dad had several Cadillac convertibles, and, one time, he forgot his guitar was in the boot,” he remembers. “He lets the top down and the mechanism crushes the case…”
“He did the same thing to a 345,” Berry Jr adds with a laugh.
Of course, Berry tried not to make a habit of breaking guitars. It’s a very different attitude to, say, The Who’s Pete Townshend, who apparently used to break and fix his guitar four times a day, even telling Jimmy Fallon that his axes ended up being “more glue and string [than anything else]”. Even Jimi Hendrix became a routine guitar smasher eventually, chasing the thrill of a theatrical act of vandalism. But, in the world of Berry, he had plenty of respect for his axe.
Despite the unfortunate loss of his Gibsons, Berry’s love of Gibsons is undeniable. While the rock and roll pioneer started out with a Kay and Silverstone, with his son asserting that 1959’s Maybellene (a track that, ironically, mentions Cadillacs) was recorded on a Kay, his legacy will always be tied with the Gibson brand.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
