1999: Eric Clapton auctioned 100 guitars including ‘Brownie’, used to record “Layla,” raising $5 million for the Crossroads Center, a drug rehab clinic Clapton founded.
2004: One of Clapton’s prize guitars, “Blackie,” a black-and-white Fender Stratocaster, was sold for $959,500 at an auction that raised more than $7.4 million also for the Crossroads Centre.
“Lenny,” the guitar Stevie Ray Vaughan played from the ’70s until his death in ’90, sold for $623,500. The guitar was donated by Vaughan’s estate.
Coincidentally or not, it’s also Jeff Beck’s birthday. The late guitar legend was in the Yardbirds (but not when Clapton was in the band), Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice plus mounting numerous solo fusion projects.
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