When The White Stripes frontman Jack White heard a busker had his guitar destroyed by a drunk stranger in the street, he didn’t rest until he tracked him down so that he could buy him a new one.
Matt Grant was performing in Edinburgh when he was approached by a passer-by who managed to snatch the guitar.
He told Sky News: “I was out busking and this drunk woman came up, was accosting me, swearing at me. I told her where to go and she didn’t like it, so she grabbed my guitar and smashed it over the pavement.
White’s manager told Mr Grant: Jack wants to buy you a guitar’
“It’s every busker’s nightmare that someone does something like that. I felt terrible. I felt really on the ground with it. I owned that guitar for five years and it’s my tool. It was a horrible feeling seeing it smashed on the ground.”
The 26-year-old musician set up a GoFundMe page to raise £300 to help him buy a replacement, as well as some extra kit.
But after raising more than £4,000, his story caught the eye of The White Stripes frontman Jack White, who then reached out to Mr Grant and offered to replace it.
But he didn’t donate a chunk of money to his fundraiser – he opted for a more personal touch.
Mr Grant said that after raising his funds, he went into GuitarGuitar in Edinburgh to buy his replacement.
While he was in there, White’s manager tracked him down after ringing around all the different guitar shops in the area trying to find him.
His original guitar was smashed after a woman ‘accosted’ him in the street. Pic: Matt Grant
“He said ‘Jack wants to buy you a guitar’,” Mr Grant told Sky News.
“I told him thank you but I’d already got one, and he said ‘listen, keep that one, get another. Any one you want’.
“I’m still racking my brain trying to find out why he was calling guitar shops. I think the manager was just thinking ‘what would a kid do with £4,000? Probably head down to the guitar shop’. And he was right.”
White’s manager offered him a range of £100 to £5,000 to buy a guitar with, and he ended up choosing a custom made Fender Stratocaster.
His new guitar cost £3,600. Pic: Matt Grant
“It was unbelievable,” he said.
“We were wondering if it was a stitch-up. My mum was just ecstatic, but at first she didn’t know who Jack White was. She said: ‘Couldn’t Eric Clapton have bought you one?'”
Mr Grant, who is releasing his first album on Monday, said he is planning to spend the leftover money from the fundraiser on some kit to allow him to stream online while busking.
“It’s amazing with everything that’s going on right now, for there still to be this positivity and support for musicians. It just shows you how much people want entertainers like us,” he said.
A spokesman for Police Scotland said: “A 45-year-old woman was arrested and will be subject to the report to the PF in connection with an alleged assault and vandalism that occurred around 2.40pm on Tuesday, 20 October 2020 in Princes Street, Edinburgh.”