The Indianapolis Colts NFL team announced the death of owner Jim Irsay, who was also known as a large-scale collector of rock ’n’ roll memorabilia.
The Colts reported he’d died in his sleep at the age of 65, and hailed his “generosity, commitment to the community, and most importantly, his love for his family.”
Irsay worked in every department of the team while his father owned it, taking charge on his death in 1997. Their success – including 10 division titles, two Super Bowl final appearances and one win – helped support his passion for collecting artifacts of value to rock, sport and culture fans.
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“Beyond his career in sports, music has been Jim Irsay’s lifelong passion,” the collection website reports. “With a heavy focus on guitars, The Jim Irsay Collection contains vintage and unique instruments, some owned and played by legendary artists.”
Among the billionaire‘s most expensive purchases are the black Fender Stratocaster owned by David Gilmour, which cost $3.9 million; the Strat played by Bob Dylan at Newport in 1965, which cost $965,000; and the Gibson SG used by George Harrison on the Beatles’ Revolver album, for which Irsay paid $567,000.
Why Rock Memorabilia Mattered to Jim Irsay
“History is so important,” he told Guitar.com in 2021 as he prepared to tour a major part of his collection. “So much of what we’re about as a world, as humanity, is tied to music.
“It’s been that way ever since the cavemen were around the fire and they scrawled on the walls, they beat things – there was always this feeling of self-expression, and a deeper feeling than just having words or sign language, or hunting and gathering systems.
“To me, it’s really important that the museum is alive. How you experience it when you walk in? I want it to be interactive.”
JC Olivera, Getty Images
He went on to argue the case for allowing visitors to touch and hold the valued items, referring to Jerry Garcia’s Tiger guitar, which he bought for $957,500. “I like people to be able to say, ‘I played Tiger’… Our emotional and spiritual lives are so tied to the arts, so tied to music.
“If someone has a death in the family or a transformative time in their life, and a certain song came out at that time, they remember that moment. It’s way bigger than just saying, ‘Oh, that’s a nice song’ … It’s much more than that. I mean, it’s the fabric of people’s lives.”
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Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff
