Instrument destruction

The destruction of musical instruments is a ritual performed by a few pop and rock musicians during live performances, particularly at the end of the gig.

Early years

A broken guitar.

Jerry Lee Lewis may be the first rock artist to destroy his equipment on stage, with several, possibly erroneous, stories of him destroying and burning pianos in the 1950s.

In the mid 1960s, guitarist Pete Townshend of The Who was the first guitar smashing rock artist. Rolling Stone magazine included his smashing of a Rickenbacker guitar at the Railway Hotel in September 1964 in their list of the "50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock & Roll". A student of Gustav Metzger, Townshend saw his guitar smashing as a kind of auto-destructive art.

Keith Moon, The Who's drummer, was also known for destroying his drum set. The most spectacular episode of this occurred during The Who's debut on U.S. television on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967. Moon overloaded his bass drum with explosive charges which were detonated during the finale of the song, "My Generation." The explosion caused guest Bette Davis to faint, set Pete Townshend's hair on fire and, according to legend, contributed to his later partial deafness and tinnitus. Moon was also injured in the explosion when shrapnel from the cymbals cut his arm. VH1 later placed this event in the top ten of their list of the 100 Greatest Rock and Roll Moments on Television.

Jeff Beck, then a member of the Yardbirds, reluctantly destroyed a guitar in the 1966 film Blowup after being told to emulate The Who by director Michelangelo Antonioni. Jimi Hendrix is also famous for burning two guitars at three shows, most notably the Monterey Pop Festival.

Later instrument destruction

Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple and Rainbow smashed guitars in performance through the seventies.

Paul Simonon of The Clash famously destroyed his bass on stage, with a photograph of the event becoming the iconic cover to their London Calling album.

Win Butler of Arcade Fire destroyed an acoustic guitar at the end of a live performance on Saturday Night Live, after a string had broken during the performance

Matt Bellamy, singer and guitarist of British rock band Muse, has smashed various Ibanez, Gretsch and Gibson models of electrics throughout the band's career. He recently smashed two of his famous custom Hugh Manson guitars, before repairing one. The other was beyond repair after being thrown by Bellamy at a strobe light, and the pieces now reside at Manson's Devon workshop.

Nine Inch Nails founder and front man, Trent Reznor was known for his particularly brutal concert performances during the era of his The Downward Spiral, and The Fragile albums. He often smashed guitars into amplifiers and keyboards. During his And All That Could Have Been tour, he smashed his keyboard to pieces with his solid microphone stand, poured water onto it, and then threw the pieces into the audience. During one concert he swung his microphone stand and it left his hands and flew into his drummers head, cutting him, and they continued to play. Another time, he hit an amplifier with his guitar and it exploded, knocking him out.

See also

• Leo Gallagher
• Shock rock