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Though he’s most well-known for his decades-long run as one of America’s most recognizable late-night talk show hosts, Conan O’Brien is also a seasoned guitarist.
The comedian often incorporates the guitar into his stage act, most famously when he closed out his brief stint as the host of The Tonight Show with a rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird that featured himself, Beck, and ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons on electric guitar, with Will Ferrell doing his best Ronnie Van Zant impression on vocals.
During a recent interview with none other than alt-rock guitar legend Billy Corgan on his radio show, O’Brien – a self-described “Buddy Holly fanatic“ – revealed that he had to stop himself from buying one of Holly’s guitar amps while visiting Gruhn Guitars in Nashville.
“They [Gruhn’s employees] showed me an amp that belonged to Buddy – they took it off and showed me where Buddy had [labeled the amp as his],“ the comedian tells Corgan.
“They let me plug it in, and I got to play [Holly’s classic song] That’ll Be the Day on a Stratocaster through that amp – pure joy was coming out of my pores.“
O’Brien was slightly less enthused, however, when he was informed of the amp’s price tag.
“I realized I could get this… or I could put one of my kids through college.“
Of course, O’Brien is full of amazing stories from his decades in show biz, and, at another point during his chat with Corgan, tells the Smashing Pumpkins frontman another amazing, gear-related anecdote – this one pertaining to George Harrison.
O’Brien has long been the proud owner of a 1964 Gretsch Tennessean, dating all the way back to his days as a young staff writer on Saturday Night Live.
One day, O’Brien tells Corgan, “George Harrison stopped by to say hi to all of us after a night of partying with [SNL head honcho] Lorne [Michaels]. It [O’Brien’s Gretsch] was in my office – it’s the exact same year and model that George played.
“For a second,“ he continues, “I thought about running down and getting that guitar and showing it to him – then I thought, don’t be that guy.“
Elsewhere in the interview, Corgan, in turn, tells O’Brien about the saga of his fabled Gish-era Stratocaster, which was returned to him in 2019, 27 years after being stolen following a Pumpkins gig.
Corgan purchased the guitar from Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, who – Corgan revealed to O’Brien – had actually stolen it from someone else.
With the beloved Strat long back in his possession, Corgan is now able to laugh off its theft three decades ago, telling O’Brien that it was ultimately “some sort of weird karmic thing.“
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Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.
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