Larry Hall became animated as he ticked off the names of rock legends, all of whom are represented among the guitars that Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay has collected.
“David Gilmore, Pink Floyd, the black Strad is right here, Jerry Garcia's Tiger,” he said. “There's so many from Eric Clapton and Prince, and just so many different people that were such a big part of American history through rock and roll.”
Hall oversees the Irsay Collection of items relating to rock music, American history and pop culture. A selection of the guitars will be on display at Indiana University’s McCalla School starting Sept. 27. Guitars played by artists ranging from Prince to John Lenon and Paul McCartney will be on display only for the first day of the exhibit. Other guitars not often seen will remain for the year.
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Irsay’s collection includes more than 220 guitars. The entire collection has about 500 items.
The oldest artifact in the collection dates to 1765 – a lottery ticket John Hancock used to help rebuild Faneuil Hall in Boston. Irsay recently added to his collection, purchasing two tickets to Ford’s Theater the night Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.
Other items include John F. Kennedy’s rocking chair from World War II, guitars that belonged to members of the Beatles and the drumheads from the set the Beatles used during their iconic 1964 performance on the Ed Sullivan Show.
“Because we have so many different areas (of interest), there's almost always something for everyone,” Hall said.
Hall told the story of one of the items, an Elton John piano that he used for over 20 years and played at hundreds of concerts.
“Queen played it for a year at the Day at the Races tour as they traveled,” he said. “The last time John Lennon was on stage in front of a live audience, was with Elton John and this piano…Paul McCartney used it at Live Aid, where over a billion people were watching that on television. That piano is sort of like the Forrest Gump of pianos. It's been all these famous places, all these famous dates.”
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Hall works with Irsay to protect, preserve and promote the collection.
“When I'm looking for something that could potentially join the collection, there's this triumvirate of the artifact itself, the artist, and then a moment in time,” he said.
Irsay often hosts concerts and tours around the country with his collection. It’s been to Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago. IU is next for the guitars.
“He's inspired by the artifacts,” Hall said. “He loves the inspiration that the artifacts themselves gives the artist, the president, whoever was connected to it, and he wants to share that with the world.”