"It was in 176 pictures and in five (movies). "The thing about that guitar is it was the most photographed guitar with Elvis," Harris said. Still, the custom Gibson Harris sold is one of the best documented Elvis guitars. Also, the King was not a serious guitar player, and the acoustic instruments he held on stage were essentially props, Harris said. Some people thought the guitar would fetch a lot more, but Harris noted it was the most ever paid for an Elvis guitar, and while Presley remains incredibly popular, his fan base is aging. Harris, who owns a party supply store, said the money he netted "is put away" and will ultimately go to his kids. "Those that know I’ve sold it, they'll say, 'How many many millions did you get for it, and I'll say, 'I can’t count that high,'" Harris said with a laugh. Take out a cut for the auction house and pay capital gains taxes, and Harris came out with about half that. The instrument went up for auction in May 2016, ultimately selling to a California neurosurgeon for $334,000, according to Artnet News. The next day, Darren Julien of Julien's Auctions contacted Harris, assuring the Asheville man he could sell the guitar in a satisfactory way. But Harris didn't like some behind the scenes activities and pulled it at the last minute. Harris first decided to part with the guitar in 2016, and it actually made it to Graceland in Memphis for a January auction. Knowing my kids, they would’ve done the same thing, the right thing, and had it auctioned and split the money." "As we get older, you start looking at the progression and all your friends starting to die, and I'm thinking, 'What am I going to do with this guitar?'" Harris told me, noting that he kept it in a bank vault. "They can cut it up into three pieces and try to sell it.
He has three grown children, and passing down such a valuable heirloom would've been problematic, to say the least. People still ask him about the instrument when they bump into him, and Harris sometimes just says he still has it, rather than getting into the whole story and the reasons he sold it. "You've had something like that for 40 years, and that was my story for 40 years." So no, it was not an easy decision to part with that custom Gibson. SEE ALSO: Viva Ashevegas! celebrates Elvis in Asheville He means music and a way of life the way it should be." "Every kid my age in the early '60s, we wanted to be like Elvis 'cause of the charisma and charm -and the way he got the women. He still means charisma and charm. Now 64, Harris still says the King meant a lot to him growing up and through his adulthood.īack in '97, Harris told me this, and it still rings true: Philip lives in Devon with his wife and son and his interests are walking, drawing, writing and reading.Checking our archives, I found that I interviewed Harris about the guitar in 19, the 20th and 25th anniversaries of Elvis' tragic death in 1977 at age 42.
ELVIS AGE PROGRESSION SERIES
Philip has also written Buster Bayliss, a series for younger readers, and stand alone novels including Here Lies Arthur, which won the Carnegie Medal. Three more Hungry Cities novels followed, and Philip’s latest project are the Fever Crumb books, prequels set centuries before the events of Mortal Engines. A magical and unique read, it immediately caught the attention of readers and reviewers and won several major awards.
It is a gripping adventure story set in an inspired fantasy world, where moving cities trawl the globe. Mortal Engines defies easy categorisation. He’s been writing stories since he was five, but Mortal Engines was the first to be published. Philip then began illustrating and has since provided cartoons and jokes for around forty books, including the best-selling Scholastic series Horrible Histories, as well as Murderous Maths and Dead Famous. Philip Reeve was born and raised in Brighton, where he worked in a bookshop for years while also producing and directing a number of no-budget theatre projects.