Jerry Garcia's iconic custom "Wolf" guitar sold for $1.9 million at auction last night. The auction was held at the Brooklyn Bowl in New York with all proceeds going to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The guitar was purchased by HubSpot CEO and deadhead Brian Halligan, co–author of Marketing Lessons From The Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn From The Most Iconic Band in History. The winning bid came in at $1.6 million dollars, plus a buyer's premium of $300,000. An anonymous donor matched the winning bid for a total of $3.2 million being donated.
The evening included a set of performances from John Scofield, Nels Cline, and Cass McCombs with some participants even getting to play Wolf on stage.
First appearing with Garcia in 1973, Wolf was the first of several custom guitars built for Jerry by noted luthier Doug Irwin. The guitar was built with purpleheart and curly maple tonewoods and a fixture of Dead shows through the ‘70s and even made appearances in the early ‘90s.
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