Add “good deed-doer” to Jack White’s numerous list of accomplishments after The White Stripes icon bought a Scottish street performer a new, $4,000 Fender Stratocaster after the busker’s guitar was vandalized by a drunk passer-by on Oct. 20.
The Edinburgh-based busker, Matt Grant, who called himself a “Live loop guitarist and street musician.” started a GoFundMe account to replace his acoustic. He posted a video on Instagram that said “Can’t believe this happened. My livelihood.”
Word of the incident and the fundraiser reached White, who asked his manager to reach out to Grant. The young musician recounted the ‘incredible” chain of events on his Instagram page.
The page had raised about £4,000 — more than $5,000 US dollars — before White stepped in with the generous gesture. Grant had gone to Edinburgh’s GuitarGuitar store to purchase a replacement when the manager told him that he’d been trying to reach Grant.
“He said: ‘Jack saw what happened bud, and he wants to get you a guitar.’
The generous gesture allowed Grant to buy an “absolute beauty” of an ax, and he called White a “legend,” saying, “I’d love to thank you personally one day.”