“That was just a Tuesday and a lunch tab for Kirk Hammett”: Butch Walker reveals he had the opportunity to buy the legendary “Greeny” Les Paul – but couldn’t afford it
As far as iconic guitars go, very few match up to Greeny. A 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard once owned by Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green, and then by blues ace Gary Moore, it’s a six-string with an inarguably mythical status.
Nowadays, the guitar is under the custodianship of Metallica guitarist and keen guitar collector Kirk Hammett, who bought it in 2014 for an undisclosed sum.
But had fate gone a different way, Greeny could have ended up in the hands of singer-songwriter and producer Butch Walker, who tells Guitar World in a new interview that he was unable to come up with the cash when the opportunity presented itself.
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“Gary Moore was one of my heroes,” Walker says. “I had an opportunity to buy Greeny before it was really making the rounds, and Kirk Hammett bought it. But I just wasn’t ready to spend $250,000 on a guitar at that stage in my life and my career.”
While also recognised for a successful solo career as an artist, Butch Walker has enjoyed success as a producer behind music by P!nk, Avril Lavigne, Taylor Swift and Fall Out Boy.
He continues: “My buddy was a guitar broker, and it started circulating that Gary was going to sell. It had belonged to Peter Green as well, which was cool, but I was actually more psyched that it was Gary Moore’s. I highly regret not coming up with the money somehow. Obviously, that was just a Tuesday and a lunch tab for Kirk Hammett.”
While Butch Walker clearly laments the missed opportunity to pick up a guitar owned by one of his heroes – not to mention one of the most legendary guitars to exist on Earth – it has found a responsible owner in Kirk Hammett, who regularly plays it onstage with Metallica, and has let a string of famous guitar players have a go, including Al Di Meola, Jack White and Jake E. Lee.
In March 2025, Hammett told The Telegraph about the numerous other guitar players who were offered the chance to buy Greeny before he got his hands on it, including his Metallica bandmate James Hetfield, no less.
“It’s been offered to other major players, and they passed on it for whatever reason, but when I saw Greeny, I knew in less than a minute that I was never gonna give it back!” he said. “I had such an instant connection to that guitar, it’s such an amazing source of inspiration and it’s my best-sounding guitar.”
The post “That was just a Tuesday and a lunch tab for Kirk Hammett”: Butch Walker reveals he had the opportunity to buy the legendary “Greeny” Les Paul – but couldn’t afford it appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
