Radiohead's Ed O'Brien Donates Favorite Guitar to Charity Auction

Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien Donates Favorite Guitar to Charity Auction

2011-11-05

Story by Anne Erickson

Autographed Radiohead guitar to benefit the Billie Butterfly Fund

Ed O’Brien, guitarist for alternative rock outfit Radiohead, has put one of his prized guitars up for auction to benefit charity. The guitar was used on the recordings of Radiohead’s popular Kid A and Amnesiac albums, and 100% of the proceeds from the auction will benefit the Billie Butterfly Fund to help raise funds for four-year-old Billie Bainbridge who has a rare, fatal brain tumor. The crusade is raising money to treat Bainbridge’s tumor with an operation in Texas, since the procedure is not available in the U.K.

The guitar is autographed by all five members of Radiohead: O’Brien, Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway. The six-string beauty also comes with a handwritten authenticity note from O’Brien, stating that the guitar “was bought in the summer of ’98, just prior to us going into record the albums which came out as ‘Kid A’ and ‘Amnesiac.’ It was pretty much the only guitar I used at that time. It’s also been gigged a lot, up to and including the ‘In Rainbows’ tour.” Further authentication is available, if the buyer requests it.

Bidding for the guitar is up and running, and you can bid by visiting the auction’s eBay page. For more information or to donate to the cause, please visit the Billie Butterfly Fund website. O’Brien donating one of his favorite guitars to help Bainbridge is yet another reason why Radiohead is such a shining example of the cream rising to the top. In other Radiohead news, he band has recently announced they plan to release new music in 2012.

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Anne Erickson

Meet the expert - Author, writer and editor Anne Erickson is a Detroit-based music reporter and radio host. She has written for the USA Today Network, Consequence.net, Blabbermouth.net, Loudwire.com and many more. Anne holds a master's degree from Michigan State University. Contact Anne at anne@audioinkradio.com.