David Bowie once sent Lewis Hamilton two guitars with no note or explanation

[L-R] David Bowie and Lewis Hamilton
(Image credit: Getty Images)

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.

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Sam Roche

Sam was Staff Writer at GuitarWorld.com from 2019 to 2023, and also created content for Total Guitar, Guitarist and Guitar Player. He has well over 15 years of guitar playing under his belt, as well as a degree in Music Technology (Mixing and Mastering). He's a metalhead through and through, but has a thorough appreciation for all genres of music. In his spare time, Sam creates point-of-view guitar lesson videos on YouTube under the name Sightline Guitar.