{"id":675842,"date":"2026-07-06T00:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T00:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/675842\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T00:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T00:24:14","slug":"kirk-hammett-felt-bad-about-paying-87000-for-neal-schon-guitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/675842\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirk Hammett Felt Bad About Paying $87,000 for Neal Schon Guitar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kirk Hammett<\/a> once felt so bad about buying a guitar from Neal Schon<\/a> that he offered to return it.<\/p>\n

The Metallica<\/a> man paid $87,500 for the 1957 Les Paul Standard at an auction in 2021. But he believed he hadn\u2019t paid enough for it.<\/p>\n

Hammett told the story at a recent fan event in Ireland (video below). Showing a photo of the rare black version of the instrument, he said: \u201cThis guitar used to belong to one of my all-time star heroes, a huge source of inspiration, Neal Schon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got this in an auction, and I don\u2019t know what was up, but I got this for, like, half the price that it was worth.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Metallica Celebrates ‘ReLoad’ With Box Set<\/a><\/p>\n

He admitted: \u201cI felt kind of bad about it because I should have paid a fair price\u2026 I paid a price that was lower than it should have been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schon seems to have been a victim of circumstance \u2013 the post-pandemic auction market was in flux, and a number of items sold for considerably less than anticipated around that time. If he\u2019d waited, he might have achieved the $150,000-plus price that had been predicted.<\/p>\n

Hammett decided to do something about the situation, as he recounted: \u201cI actually called Neal. I said, \u2018Neal, do you want the guitar back?\u2019 And he said, \u2018No, man, you keep it. You buy it, you keep it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It only added to Hammett\u2019s appreciation for the Journey<\/a> leader. \u201cNeal Schon, he\u2019s such a cool, cool guy,\u201d he said. \u201c[H]e\u2019s an amazing guitar player\u2026 He lives and breathes music.<\/p>\n

Metallica Donate $100,000 To Venezuela Earthquakes Aid<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd to me, he\u2019s just such a inspiration\u2026 I see him, and I see how he conducts his life and how he plays, and his commitment and dedication to music. I was just like, \u2018Yeah! That\u2019s what I want to do too.\u2019 So I\u2019m doing it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Metallica donated $100,000 to emergency operations in Venezuela following the devastating earthquakes in the region which have killed over 2,000 people and injured more than 70,000, with an estimated 6,800,000 directly affected.<\/p>\n

The payment came from the band\u2019s All Within My Hands foundation<\/a>. A statement explained that the grant \u201cwill support [humanitarian aid service] Direct Relief as the organization continues to respond to requests in the region as they become known.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch Kirk Hammett\u2019s Guitar Presentation<\/p>\n

Metallica Lineup Changes: A Complete Guide<\/p>\n

They became the most successful heavy metal band in history, but not without the occasional personnel shift.<\/p>\n

Gallery Credit: Ed Rivadavia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kirk Hammett once felt so bad about buying a guitar from Neal Schon that he offered to return…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-675842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}