John Lennon’s Piano Holds a Guinness World Record Thanks to George Michael
John Lennon performed many of his most iconic songs on piano. Any piano touched by Lennon would immediately skyrocket in value due to the legendary musician it’s now associated with. That value helped John Lennon’s piano gain a Guinness World Record for the highest price ever spent on a piano, thanks to George Michael.
George Michael bought a piano used by John Lennon for a record price
George Michael was a fellow British singer-songwriter who was best known as a member of Wham! and for hit songs like “Faith” and “Careless Whisper.” In 2000, George Michael bought the piano John Lennon used for “Imagine,” the best-selling single of his solo career.
According to Guinness World Records, Michael bought the piano at an auction for a record price of £1.45 million ($2.1 million). The piano would have been put away in storage, and Michael bought it, believing it deserved to be seen by the masses. The piano is a Steinway Model Z upright built in Hamburg in 1970. Lennon bought the piano in December of that year and had it delivered to his Ascot Sound Studios.
George Michael wanted to put the piano in The Beatles museum
According to Independent, George Michael bought John Lennon’s piano because he wanted to donate it to the Beatles Story museum in Liverpool. Before the auction, the piano had been loaned to the museum by a private collector who bought it in 1992. However, when he decided to sell it, there were fears the piano could be lost to a wealthy buyer in another country. Michael later said in an interview that it was “worth every penny.”
“Having paid one and a half million pounds for it, I’d really like to play something on it and stick it on my next record,” Michael added. “So as I’m recording right now, I think I’ll hold on to it for a couple of months and see if I can get it on to my new record and then it’s going back to the museum in Liverpool where I think it rightly belongs. “It’s not the type of thing that should be in storage somewhere or being protected, it should be seen by people.”
Michael then sent the piano on an Imagine Peace tour
In 2006, George Michael and his partner Kenny Goss allowed the piano to be displayed at “Th Grassy Knoll” in Dallas, TX, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. In 2007, the piano became a part of the Imagine Piano Peace Project, where the piano toured around the U.S., traveling to places where significant acts of violence occurred.
Locations where Lennon’s piano was exhibited, include Ford’s Theater, where Lincoln was assassinated, the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Waco, TX, the Lorraine Motel, and Virginia Tech. The tour ended in 2019, with the last stop at the Goss-Michael Foundation in Dallas, TX. The piano currently resides at the Strawberry Field exhibition in Liverpool, where it has been displayed since October 2020.
