“I thought it was a gift for playing the show!”: The hilarious tale of how Machine Gun Kelly accidentally stole a Martin acoustic from a hotel room – and how he was billed nearly 10x its price tag for the mistake
Machine Gun Kelly has recounted the time he accidentally stole a Martin acoustic guitar from LA’s Ace Hotel.
Speaking on the Norman’s Rare Guitar Netflix documentary [via Guitar World], MGK explains that he was landed with a hefty bill for taking the guitar, which he believed was a gift. While staying at the Ace Hotel before a show, he found himself surrounded by presents. This, in itself, isn’t out of the ordinary as the Ace Hotel’s rooms are often used as green rooms for performing artists.
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“They had candy, gifts, and shit like that, but then they had this guitar just sitting in the corner,” he says. “I picked it up and it said: ‘Your left hand is what you know, your right hand is who you are.’”
The message, which was inscribed beneath the bridge, resonated with MGK. “That’s exactly what I was talking about. I never connected with the super technical guitar players. I was always into the people where I could feel every emotion they had, whether they were having a good day or if they were pissed or if they just didn’t give a fuck.”
The Martin, seemingly an X Series model which retails for only about $699, struck a chord with MGK, who decided to take it. “I took the guitar out of the room, we exited the building, and Interscope called me 20 minutes later. They said, ‘The Ace Hotel just called us and said that they have you on camera leaving with the guitar,’ and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, well, I thought it was a gift for doing the show!’ They were like, ‘Yeah, well, it wasn’t a gift, that’s just what they put in their hotel rooms.’”
MGK decided he didn’t want to give the instrument back, as he had already developed an attachment. “I love the guitar, just tell them I have to have it,” he told the Interscope rep. “The hotel billed me for $5,000.”
The guitar later fell victim to an unfortunate circumstance though, as after waking up after a party he says he noticed the guitar’s top had begun to split from the back and sides. “This fucking happened,” he exclaims, revealing that someone claimed it fell off the wall. “What did it fall from? The top of the Empire State Building? This doesn’t happen if you fall four feet off the wall rack.”
Far from being too frustrated with the mishap though, it’s made the guitar more special to MGK. “Things like that is what makes a guitar special to me, [the] character or a reason why it was brought to you.”
The post “I thought it was a gift for playing the show!”: The hilarious tale of how Machine Gun Kelly accidentally stole a Martin acoustic from a hotel room – and how he was billed nearly 10x its price tag for the mistake appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
