Colts owner Jim Irsay has spent millions of dollars on music memorabilia, and he’s prepared to spend millions more in an auction that he says he’s supporting not only for the item up for sale but for the cause it will support.
The item in question is a Fender guitar Kurt Cobain played in the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” music video. And Irsay opened the bidding at $2 million because Cobain’s heirs have pledged that a portion of the proceeds will go to Kicking The Stigma, an Irsay family initiative for mental health.
“This guitar is big, and it relates so much to stigma,” Irsay said, via the Indianapolis Star. “When you have a mental illness, people die. These are fatal diseases -- bipolar, schizophrenia, post-partem depression, alcoholic addictions. With fatal diseases, people die and they don’t choose to die. Those of us who are alive, we’re not stronger or better. We didn’t get our act together more. We didn’t have more character. That’s where it’s so false.”
The auction will take place May 20-22 at juliensauctions.com.