“He gave the guitar back to me after the set and said, ‘Oh man, it’s such a good one’”: Marcus King takes Rory Gallagher’s legendary Isle of Wight Fender Telecaster for a spin on stage

Marcus King has taken to the stage with yet another legendary electric guitar, using Rory Gallagher’s famed white Fender Telecaster to play a handful of songs at one of his recent shows.

King is certainly no stranger to playing hallowed six-strings steeped in rock ‘n’ roll history. Recently, he became the latest big-name player to wield Jeff Beck’s iconic YardBurst Les Paul, which had already passed through the hands of Lenny Kravitz’s guitarist, Craig Ross.

That guitar – like the Gallagher Telecaster that recently saw action – is currently in hands of French vintage guitar dealer Matthieu Lucas of Matt's Guitar Shop, and now he and King have worked together once again to bring the fabled single-cut out of its case and onto the stage.

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Like many of Gallagher’s guitars, the white Telecaster was auctioned off earlier this year alongside the late blues rock great’s 1961 Stratocaster. It was one of Gallagher’s most cherished instruments, and eventually became his number-one slide guitar, famously starring during Gallagher’s 1970 Isle of Wight festival set.

When it went under the hammer, the guitar was snapped up by Lucas, who has now told Guitar World the story of how it ended up in the arms of King – who used it during a show in Belgium on July 10.

“We bought the Black Esquire and sold it to my friend JR in Argentina,” Lucas remembers, relaying how he once owned Gallagher’s other, equally iconic single-cut. “The White Telecaster was a dream guitar to get for the shop.

“When you look at that guitar, you think about Rory's first band Taste, most notably at Isle of Wight and all his career and legacy,” he adds. “The white guitar talked to me more than anything in that auction.”

That he was able to put this Tele in the arms of King was even more special, owing to the fact he believes King to be “the best guitar player of his generation and already one of the best in the world’s history”.

“I just think Rory was one of the best guitar players that ever lived and so is Marcus today,” he gushes. “The feeling of having that legendary guitar being played so beautifully is an incredible sensation.”

King used Gallagher’s white Tele to play a handful of tracks, including Rita is Gone, Homesick, and Save Me. The solo that King puts together for Rita... – with its soaring dynamics and effortless touch – is a particular highlight that stuck out to Lucas.

Taste - Gambling Blues - Live At The Isle Of Wight Festival / 1970 - YouTube

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It also stuck out to King, as Lucas remembers: “He gave the guitar back to me after the set and said, ‘Oh man, it's such a good one.’"

The collaboration continues Lucas’ desire to put iconic instruments into the hands of active musicians, and to prevent fabled guitars from falling out of the public eye and into the obscurity of a storage facility.

“Our philosophy is to have the guitars being played on stage as much as possible,” Lucas tells Guitar World. In an Instagram post, he added, “We don’t believe in locking guitars in glass boxes. We believed in passing the torch. These mythical instruments were meant to be played.”

As such, the Gallagher Telecaster will be spotted out in the wild again soon. Not only that, expect Lucas and King to work together again to bring another famed example from Lucas’ sphere of influence to the stage. As for the guitar dealer himself, he already has his mind set on the next guitar.

“We never know what's next,” he teases. “I know that Marcus' favourite is Paul Kossoff and Eric Clapton's Cream 1955 Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty! We'll see what's next.”

Lucas has a history of facilitating high-profile guitar link-ups. In the past, he’s entrusted Steve Jones’ Sex Pistols Les Paul to Yungblud, Billie Joe Armstrong and Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley.