If there’s a narrative that might make any guitarist wince, it’s what occurred to a priceless Martin acoustic guitar on the set of Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight.

If you happen to’ve seen the film, you’ll keep in mind the scene when Kurt Russell’s character, John “the Hangman” Ruth”, turns into irked by Jennifer Jason Leigh’s “Loopy” Daisy Domergue taking part in the Australian people ballad Jim Jones at Botany Bay, and proceeds to grab the guitar from her fingers and smash it.

The filmmakers organized to borrow an genuine 1870s acoustic guitar from Martin in order that Leigh might play a period-correct instrument onscreen, and the unique plan was, naturally, for just a little little bit of screenplay sleight of hand, and for a duplicate to be the one which was smashed up. Solely factor is, communication broke down, and the true 150-year-old Martin was obliterated as an alternative.

However was the unlucky incident fairly the accident the official story has us consider? Dick Boak, former Martin in-house historian and a veteran of the corporate’s A&R division, speculates that Quentin Tarantino might need hatched a plan to get essentially the most genuine response doable out of Jennifer Jason Leigh.

“Tarantino filmed it at evening on objective in order that the guitar tech wouldn’t be there,” he says in a brand new interview with Gear Gab Podcast with Eric Dahl. “He’d gone dwelling, and so they by no means introduced the papier-mâché guitars out. They only had the common guitar.

“And she or he performed her little factor, and Kurt Russell grabbed it out of her fingers. And Tarantino needed to get the real response out of her. And yeah, he did, as a result of the response – I imply, I’ll always remember it, , the response on her face and every part from that.”

The incident little doubt led to some severe misery at Martin HQ: “I used to be so upset,” Boak remembers. “I believed possibly I’d even get fired over this.”

Then-Martin CEO Chris Martin noticed the upside, although, Boak continues. “He was terrific. He stated, ‘It’s implausible. It’s going to be in a well-known film. The publicity worth within the film is bigger than the guitar might ever be.”

The stays of the guitar had been later displayed on the Martin sales space on the 2024 NAMM Present in Anaheim, California.

Again in 2024, Kurt Russell recounted smashing the priceless 150-year-old Martin on the set of The Hateful Eight: “Jennifer had various guitars to work on this tune that she was going to sing. 

“The one explicit guitar that she preferred, I suppose, was this Martin,” he stated. “No person ever stated that it was 145 years previous on the time. It was a Martin, and I keep in mind any person on the factor saying, ‘I believe it’s price about $15,000.’ I stated, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’”

“Then comes the day to shoot it,” he continued. “I knew that she’d been engaged on this one guitar, and since I’ve completed a thousand reveals, I couldn’t even think about that they had been going to be utilizing the one guitar that she was going to be taking part in, not that it was a priceless Martin guitar. As a result of it wasn’t. No person stated that. No person made that declare.

“However once we did the take, you possibly can even see it. I type of give it an additional beat, and nothing. I am going forward and smash the guitar. I can inform – after I seize her and sit her down, I can inform she’s not glad about this. It’s like: One thing’s improper. In order quickly because it’s over, I say, ‘Inform me that’s not the guitar you’ve been working towards with,’ and she or he [nods].”