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Vernon Reid, Living Colour founder and guitarist, believes Prince needs to pay for breaking a guitar on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” last Friday.
After performing his song “Bambi,” the rock and soul legend tossed the rare 1961 Epiphone Crestwood guitar about 10 feet into the air, breaking it.
There’s one major problem. The guitar was reportedly a loaner from Captain Kirk Douglas from The Roots, Fallon’s house band.
Douglas' damaged guitar (Twitter)“Prince needs to write a CHECK,” Reid commented on Twitter Wednesday. “Smash SOMEONE ELSE’S 60’S ERA GUITAR & WALK AWAY?! NOPE.”
Reid says there is no excuse for Prince’s behavior. “Talent, even a SUPREME LEVEL like PRINCE’S doesn’t give him THE RIGHT TO DO THAT.Next time he sings The Cross, he should think about THAT.”
Reid stresses his support of Douglas. “The more I think of it, the madder I get. Capt. Kirk is 1 of the nicest people I know, & a real fan of his- VERY disappointed in TACKAP.”
Douglas upheld the nice guy demeanor Reid described when discussing the matter on Twitter.
When Douglas posted a photo of the guitar on his Twitter page Saturday, he used the title of Prince’s heart wrenching song “Purple Rain” as the caption.
Captain Kirk Douglas (Mike Coppola, Getty Images)Douglas conveys his disappointment in a subsequent post. “Maybe it’s because I’m a dad but I think framing the guitar is a little like rewarding bad behavior,” he wrote.
Douglas brought the guitar to work because of Prince. “The crazy thing is the only reason the guitar was in 30 rock was because I was rehearsing for a Prince tribute at Carnegie Hall this week,” he wrote.
The Roots are one of 20 bands playing Prince at Carnegie Hall Thursday night to benefit music programs for under-privileged youth in New York.
According to Reid, Prince “Went out of his way to ASK TO BORROW IT. Fallon is shot at 30 Rock. 48th st is CLOSE-could’ve gotten a FREE guitar in 10m.”
Vernon Reid (Patrick R. Murphy, Getty Images)A 1961 Epiphone Crestwood can be purchased for $4,500 to $7,000 says Leroy Braxton, manager of the vintage guitar room at the Guitar Center in Hollywood.
“It was kinda a student model guitar,” Braxton tells Yahoo! Music. “It was marketed as such and kinda developed as such. They had two versions of it. They had a Crestwood, sometimes it was referred to as a custom, and there was deluxe, I think it was introduced little later, I think ‘63. This was a guitar that essentially stopped being in production in the late ‘60s early ‘70s.”
Braxton said he recently sold a Crestwood. “It’s one that we do see from time to time at the Guitar Center,” he says.
