Kurt Russell has sought to tell his side of the story regarding his infamous The Hateful Eight guitar smash, which saw the actor unknowingly destroy a 145-year-old parlor guitar on loan from the Martin Guitar Museum.
If, for whatever reason, you’re unaware of the tale, it goes as follows: during the filming of Quentin Tarantino’s Western epic, Russell featured in a scene that saw his angered character rip a guitar from his co-star’s hand and batter it beyond repair.
Unfortunately, the guitar, wielded by Jennifer Jason Leigh at the time, turned out to be a vintage circa 1870 acoustic guitar that the production had borrowed directly from the Martin museum.
It was one of a number of guitars that Leigh had been using in the run up to the scene to practice the song she’d be playing in that particular part in the film, but Russell was wholly unaware that it was also the one that she had in her hands when the cameras were rolling. Unfortunately, it hadn't been swapped out for a replica.
Following some overzealous direction from Tarantino – “Just go until I say stop,” Russell once recalled him saying – the actor decided to really buy into the scene, and ended up destroying the guitar. Leigh’s reaction was completely authentic.
The anecdote gave birth to a number of reports and stories, and even prompted the Martin museum to bemoan the destruction of what it called a “priceless, irreplaceable artifact” (via Reverb), before completely changing its film loan policy.
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However, in a new interview with Esquire, Russell was quick to shoot down notions that the guitar was in fact “priceless”, and argued that the entire story has been blown wildly out of proportion.
“I love how these stories evolve,” he said, before going on to explain: “Jennifer had a number of guitars to work on this song that she was going to sing. The one particular guitar that she liked I guess was this Martin.
Nobody ever said it was 145 years old. At the time it was a Martin. I remember somebody say, ‘I think it’s worth about $15,000’
“Nobody ever said it was 145 years old,” Russell went on to stress. “At the time it was a Martin. I remember somebody say, ‘I think it’s worth about $15,000.’ I was like, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’
“Then comes the day to shoot it. I knew that she’d been working on this one guitar, and because I’ve done a thousand shows I couldn't imagine they would even be using the one guitar that she was [playing].
“Not that it was a priceless Martin guitar, because it wasn’t. Nobody said that. Nobody made that claim. But when we did the take – you can even see it – I give it an extra beat. And, nothing, so I go ahead and smash the guitar.”
It turns out that Russell did not feel at all guilty about smashing the museum piece, and instead only felt bad for Leigh, who had just seen her beloved Martin parlor guitar smashed to bits.
“I can tell when I grab her and sit her down, I can tell she’s not happy about this. Something’s wrong,” Russell continued. “As soon as it’s over I said, ‘Tell me that’s not the guitar that you’ve been practicing with.’ And she went, ‘Yeah.’ I only felt bad about that. I [don’t] give a shit about the guitar.”
According to Russell, the story became a myth, which then spiraled out of control, and soon entered “urban legend” territory, wherein the facts of the original incident got swapped out for more sensationalist soundbites.
For example, Russell rejects the notion that the guitar was “priceless” – despite Martin Museum director Dick Boak and The Hateful Eight sound mixer Mark Ulano both labeling it as such – and instead stresses he was informed at the time the guitar was worth $15,000.
That valuation is in line with other 1870s-era Martin parlor guitars that have been unearthed in recent years – although it should be pointed out that these were not museum-grade examples.
In September last year, a 150-year-old 13” Martin acoustic was listed on Reverb for $6,750. Likewise, another 150-year-old Martin that had been found in the back of a woman’s house sold to an ex-Fender CEO for $11,000.
“Suddenly, within a week, the guitar is worth $25,000,” Russell argued to Esquire. “At the end of the show, it’s worth $45,000. I promise you in 10 years it will be older than Martin existed. I just love how these urban legends grow.”
Whatever the case, Martin was clearly hurt by the whole ordeal, and quickly moved to change its guitar-loaning policy. As per Boak, “We want to make sure that people know that the incident was very distressing to us.
“We can’t believe that it happened. I don’t think anything can really remedy this. We’ve been remunerated for the insurance value, but it’s not about the money. It’s about the preservation of American musical history and heritage.
“As a result of the incident, the company will no longer loan guitars to movies under any circumstances.”
Despite the fallout, Martin did display the infamous guitar’s remains at the NAMM show earlier this year – the first time it had ever been seen in public since the smash.
