Phoebe Bridgers’ smashed ‘Saturday Night Live’ guitar gets sold for a whopping $100K

Phoebe Bridgers’ guitar seemed like it wasn’t going to see much more action after she smashed it against an amplifier on “Saturday Night Live” in February, but it managed to strike quite a chord among would-be collectors when GLAAD put it up for auction. The artifact went for a shocking $101,500 when bidding closed Sunday.

Of course, due to privacy concerns, GLAAD is not sharing the identity of the purchaser.

Bridgers hammered her Dan electro guitar against a fake guitar monitor while playing ‘I Know the End’, the closing track from her 2020 album ‘Punisher’, on SNL. She did so, with the blessing of the instrument brand, who apparently told Bridgers “they’re hard to break”.

The latter performance ended in an explosive guitar solo, a primal scream, and Bridgers repeatedly smashing her guitar, sending sparks into the air.

Opinions on the guitar smashing stunt

The stunt became the subject of debate online with some calling her action “disappointing”, “extra” and an “unjustifiably awkward display of white privilege”. Others, however, claimed such comments were sexist and that a male artist wouldn’t have been criticized for the move.

“I know she has a loyal fan base,” says Anthony Ramos, the supervising producer of the GLAAD Media Awards, an event held Thursday night, to which the auction was tied.

“Saturday night when I went to bed, it was around $18,000, and I was like, ‘That’s a great number!’ I was kind of hoping we would get to 25. Then I woke up and it was 40, then 50, then 80, and finally over 100. Obviously, we were very pleasantly surprised. I’m so thankful someone wanted to support our work and wanted that guitar so badly.”

However, David Crosby was less complimentary – labeling the stunt “pathetic”. Bridgers also responded by labeling her a “little bitch.”