The guy who smashed a Taylor Swift-signed guitar (that wasn’t actually signed by her) with a hammer has explained his now-viral stunt.
Gary Estes, 67, who paid $4,000 for the instrument at the Ellis County Wild Game Dinner in Waxahachie, Texas (not Waxahatchee), told NBC News, “There was nothing malicious or anything about it. It was just a joke at an auction that we had to raise money for kids, right? And that’s all it was. There was nothing mean about it, nothing bad about it. It was just a joke that they were making up on the stage, and we just followed through with a joke.”
However, Estes also said that he’s a Donald Trump supporter and didn’t enjoy “childless cat lady” Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris. “Yes, you can connect the dots there,” he added.
Ellis County Wild Game Dinner spokesperson Craig Meier called the guitar smashing “a funny, light-hearted thing.” He continued, “I know maybe it seemed to be malicious, but everybody was laughing. There were people there, at the time, who joked around that he’s mad because he doesn’t know how to play the guitar. Taylor Swift, it became a political thing, and that was kind of the gist of it, just a light-hearted bit of a dig at Taylor for coming out politically and entertainers using their influence to influence politics.”
If you want to own a random, very dumb piece of history, the guitar is for sale on eBay.