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Rick Nielsen surrenders Telecaster for exhibit
Rick Nielsen surrenders Telecaster for exhibit
ROCKFORD REGISTER STAR
ROCKFORD — A semitrailer truck carrying John Lennon’s psychedelic Rolls-Royce rolled into Rockford Thursday to pick up 17 guitars from Rick Nielsen’s collection. Lennon’s 1965 car, on permanent display at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Canada, and the Cheap Trick guitarist’s instruments are being featured in the Rock Stars’ Cars & Guitars exhibit at The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Mich., from June 9 to Sept. 30.
The guitars Nielsen is loaning make up more than half the display that will feature 30 “celebrated guitars that helped change the direction of rock ’n’ roll history,” according to the museum’s Web site, thehenryford.org.
Nielsen started collecting guitars in 1963 and has owned thousands through the years.
Among those Nielsen is loaning is a Telecaster Stringbender owned by Nielsen that Lennon played in New York City on Aug. 12, 1980, the date when Nielsen and Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos recorded for Lennon’s “Double Fantasy” album. Nielsen loaned the guitar to Lennon and got it back three years after Lennon’s death. “He’d never seen a Stringbender before and thought it was cool.”
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