We have his Lazer guitars we have three of them which are much smaller and not very guitar-like. We have about three dozen of Johnny's guitars, including his beloved Gibson Firebirds. You have a pretty sizable collection of his guitars, for instance.

But there are quirky things like his beard and then things that could be considered iconic. Although sometimes he appeared on stage bare chested, covered with tattoos, he would often wear bracelets and armlets and exotic belts with big buckles and hats with feathers in them, and we have all that stuff. I forget the exact numbers of lots, somewhere in the neighborhood of 650. Ahead of the auction for Winter, who passed away in 2014, Ettinger spoke to the Dallas Observer about what will be for sale, as well some of the more unusual items that have passed through his auction house's doors.ĭallas Observer: There are some pretty interesting things up for sale in this Johnny Winter auction - like, say, his beard shavings.Įttinger: Well, look, this is coming directly from his family. Guerney's president Arlan Ettinger has seen pretty well everything you can imagine in terms of memorabilia, having run auctions for the likes of the Grateful Dead, Elvis Presley, Dick Clark and Charlie Parker.

But from there you can go pretty far down the rabbit hole, through sweat-stained clothing to, say, locks of David Bowie's hair - or, as is up for sale through Guerney's in New York City this weekend, Texas blues legend Johnny Winter's beard clippings. There are your more ordinary items, like gig posters or rare records. The life of the music memorabilia collector can be a strange one.

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