By Steve Beard
Jack White is the patron saint of bruised and battered street buskers. Just ask musician Matt Grant.
On Tuesday, Grant got his guitar smashed while he was performing on the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland. “Often I don’t rise to people coming up and talking nonsense but this lady was pushing it too far. She was in my face swearing and shouting at me. I told her to go away and she wasn’t having any of it. She grabbed my guitar and smashed it over the ground,” he wrote on Instagram.
“It’s every busker’s nightmare that someone does something like that,” he told Sky News. “I felt terrible. I felt really on the ground with it. I owned that guitar for five years and it’s my tool. It was a horrible feeling seeing it smashed on the ground.”
After setting up a GoFundMe page, Grant got the surprise of a lifetime. “Incredible. Jack White from The White Stripes got in touch this morning and decided to buy me a brand new guitar,” reported Grant. “Unbelievable. From one of the worst things to happen to one of the best. Once again, thank you for everyone’s help.”
White found out about Grant’s smashed guitar and saw the GoFundMe page. White had his management people call the guitar shops in Edinburgh to make sure Grant got a new guitar.
“Absolute once in a million lifetimes thing happened today and I cannot thank Jack enough for his absolute generosity,” wrote Grant. “Apparently he saw what happened and hit up his manager just this morning, who then amazingly tracked me down to the guitar shop just in time for me to walk out with this absolute beauty.”
Grant ended up buying a custom made Fender Stratocaster.
“Thanks Jack. I’d love to thank you personally one day, you’re a legend.”
On Instagram, Grant relates how busking on the street increases his confidence. “It can be difficult. You have to be positive. Optimistic. And be prepared to bring that out on to the street every day,” he wrote. “It’s not something I want to do forever… The real goal is to study music and work as a session musician. But busking will always be the thing that gave me confidence in my music and even just in the person I am today.”
Steve Beard is the creator of Thunderstruck.