In recent months, Gen Z punk rock superstar Yungblud has developed quite a reputation for handing out guitars to his fans. The specific model he has been giving away is his Epiphone SG Junior and first-ever signature guitar, which he had previously teased on social media before its official launch in July.
In a new interview with Total Guitar, Yungblud has explained his reasoning behind the guitar giveaways and how the idea came about serendipitously.
“We’d been sent some cool prototypes to tour with. I wanted to try them out and switch between my main ’60s Gibson and the Epiphones. I started to mix and match on stage. We were headlining a festival in Prague and I asked the crowd, ‘Does anyone want to come up and play this next song with us? Does anyone actually know how to play it?’”
“Everyone went a bit mad and it was crazy looking at 60,000 people screaming, ‘Yeah!’ I remember looking out and a mosh pit opened up. There was one kid in the middle screaming, ‘Me!’ I got him up, his name was Simon, and it was like we’d been playing with him our entire lives.”
He continues, “I handed him the guitar at the end saying, ‘You can keep that!’ And the next day it had millions of views.”
The unexpected viral hit led Yungblud to call the factory to inform them that they needed a “load more” guitars, as he planned to give them out to his fans.
While it was undoubtedly a great way to promote his upcoming model, Yungblud asserts he hunkered down on the idea mainly because he wanted to inspire his fans to pick up the guitar.
“After the gigs, I would go to the barrier when the house lights come on to hang out with the kids – that’s what I’ve done since we started – and people will tell me they’re starting a band. That will lead to me calling my tech over to bring them a guitar.”
He concludes, “If I can play a tiny part in someone’s story, just like Angus [Young] or Billie Joe [Armstrong] did for me, then what a fucking honor!”
In other Yungblud news, the acclaimed artist recently opened up about what it was like to play Steve Jones’ Sex Pistols Les Paul.
For more from Yungblud, plus new interviews with King Gizzard and Michael Schenker, pick up issue 389 of Total Guitar at Magazines Direct.
