An adopted Minneapolis resident for more than a decade now, rockabilly star Brian Setzer has also now found a permanent home for his trademark guitar in Washington, D.C.
The Stray Cats leader donated a replica version of his orange 1959 model Gretsch 6120 guitar to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History over the weekend. It's the same type of guitar he used to record "Rock This Town" and other Stray Cats favorites, which Setzer custom-fitted with two Monopoly game dice drilled onto the volume knobs. He had the replica built after the overworked original became unusable.
"Maybe in a hundred years people will look at my guitar and be inspired to play it and enjoy it the way I do," Setzer told the Smithsonian, whose instrument collection also includes John Coltrane's sax, Prince's "yellow cloud" guitar and one of Eddie Van Halen's striped axes.
Another sign of his guitar godliness, Setzer is featured on the cover of this month's Guitar Player magazine. That follows the release of his new album, "Rockabilly Riot! All Original!" which came out in August and features all new songs. While we'd welcome a stripped-down show to promote that record, Setzer's next hometown gig will be the tour kick-off for his annual Christmas big band tour at the Orpheum Theatre on Nov. 14.
