Jim Irsay bought Prince’s famous yellow guitar at auction, but rather than stash the instrument away, he should put it up as a trophy.
Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay occasionally likes to scoop out handfuls of gold from his Scrooge McDuck gold pile and purchase iconic musical instruments. Because Jim Irsay figures, since he has lots of money, that means he’s entitled to own pieces of our collective cultural history.
In his life Irsay has collected instruments once belonging Jerry Garcia, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and Bob Dylan. This weekend, the rich music lover added to his personal rock and roll museum by shelling out $137,500 for a yellow guitar once owned by Prince.
Prince fans may recognize the guitar in question.
Prince’s yellow guitar auctioned https://t.co/RdsTzDg2ug pic.twitter.com/hMMLSyfEZj
— GlobalTake.com (@globaltakenews) June 27, 2016
What does Jim Irsay mean to do with Prince’s guitar? Put it away in a vault? Display it in his living room? Attempt to play it?
Any of the above outcomes would, to my mind and probably the minds of a lot of Prince fans, be an insult to both the guitar and the man who used to shred on it.
No great rock instrument should be relegated to some rich guy’s house just so he can show off how much money he has. Might I then propose a more noble fate for the guitar?
Jim Irsay, Indianapolis Colts owner, put up Prince’s guitar as a trophy when your team plays the Minnesota Vikings in 2016.
Prince is of course connected to Minnesota and especially the Twin Cities like no other cultural figure. Not only did Prince come from the Cities and cut his musical teeth in venues there, after he became a big-time star he still headquartered himself in Chanhassen. And Chanhassen was where Prince would ultimately die.
Prince was so into all things Twin Cities that he even occasionally became a Vikings fan, notably in 2009 when Brett Favre was leading the team on a playoff run and Prince decided they needed a fight song.
The fight song was hideous, the team ultimately did not make the Super Bowl and afterward Prince seemingly went back to not caring about the Vikings, but all that’s irrelevant. In our minds Prince is connected to the Vikings however tenuously, and folks from Minnesota certainly think of him as one of their own without reservation.
Minnesotans feel such a sense of ownership over Prince and his legacy that I bet more than a few of them were ticked when they learned his guitar had been purchased not by Zygi Wilf (who frankly doesn’t seem like much of a Prince guy) but Jim Irsay, owner of a rival team.
I bet Minnesotans would love to see Prince’s guitar come back home where it belongs and be displayed inside U.S. Bank Stadium. Of course, mounting a commando raid and stealing the guitar back is out of the question. So too is passing the hat and attempting to purchase the guitar from the insanely rich dude who now owns it.
I’m sure Jim Irsay doesn’t care much about the feelings of Minnesotans, but if he does possess even a shred of compassion for Prince fans from Minnesota who are still grieving about his death and now have had this memorabilia-related insult added to their injury, perhaps he would be willing to give Minnesota a chance to win back the guitar?
Next: Mankato losing training camp?
I know trophy games in college football are annoying and stupid, but this trophy game – the Prince Guitar Game – would be awesome. The Vikings and Colts play at U.S. Bank Stadium on December 18 and I would love for Irsay to bring Prince’s guitar and set it up on a purple velvet cushion behind the Colts’ bench. Let the winner of the game claim the guitar.
Not only would this be a cool thing to do Jim Irsay, it would also be the right thing. What else are you going to do with the guitar? Hang it over your golden toilet?