David Bowie reportedly once sent F1 driver Lewis Hamilton two electric guitars with no note or explanation.
In a new IGTV video shared to Instagram, Hamilton explains: “A couple of years ago, I got home to this beautiful gift of these two guitars, and I had no idea where they were from, who they came from and why they were in my apartment. It wasn’t until about a year later that David Bowie had sent me these guitars.”
He continues: “I never even knew, there was no message with it – later on we found out from someone. They said that he was a fan, which – I find it so hard to believe. My dad would always tell about a story – he had met him [Bowie] in London, somewhere on the street… And said that he was one of the nicest people ever.”
In a separate Instagram post, Hamilton throws down some reverberant clean arpeggios using one of the guitars, a Bigsby-equipped semi-hollow from US builder Jarrell Guitars.
The post's caption reads: “Excuse all the mistakes, I’m far from good. But this is first take playing this guitar that David Bowie sent to me some years ago. I love this guitar and will cherish it forever. I never got to say thank you him or his family so if they see this, thank you so much for this.”
David Bowie died in 2016 following an 18-month battle with liver cancer. His death came just two days after the release of his 25th studio album, Blackstar.
In other Bowie-related news, a 12-string guitar owned and signed by the Ziggy Stardust singer went up for auction last week. A Takamine G Series EG-355SC, the guitar has the words “Ground Control to Major Tom” written by Bowie on the lower left bout of its body.