{"id":75231,"date":"2026-10-17T15:05:02","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T15:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/17\/les-paul-house-controversy-who-owns-rock-history\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T15:05:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T15:05:02","slug":"les-paul-house-controversy-who-owns-rock-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/17\/les-paul-house-controversy-who-owns-rock-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Les Paul House Controversy: Who Owns Rock History?"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tWhen Gene Paul\u2019s sister called him in August, he expected the usual yearly rendition of \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d \u2014 he\u2019d just turned 82, after all. Instead, she asked, \u201cDid you see the picture of the house? They demolished it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe knew exactly which house she meant: the one in Mahwah, New Jersey<\/a>, where their legendary father<\/a>, Les Paul<\/a>, lived from 1952 until his death in 2009. That\u2019s the place where he pioneered multitrack recording, honed his electric-guitar design<\/a>, and, in essence, ushered in the genre that this publication was built on. \u201cIt was devastating,\u201d Gene says of the Facebook photos he saw. \u201cAnd then I looked at the comments: \u2018How could you possibly have let this happen?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe battle over Les Paul\u2019s house has been raging since news of the demolition first hit, with family and friends pointing the finger at the Les Paul Foundation, helmed by Michael Braunstein, the musician-inventor\u2019s former manager, accusing him of selling the property out of greed. And although the lack of communication between the family and the foundation has sowed its fair share of discord, the situation is a bit thornier than that.<\/p>\n

\n\tGene Paul moved into his father\u2019s house around age 15, and joined his band soon after that. \u201cI thought it was normal for a father to have a studio, make his own guitar<\/a>, develop the multitrack tape machine, go on the road and perform, and make records,\u201d he says. He recalls helping his father wind pickups for his guitars, and wandering through the greenery surrounding the Jetsons<\/em>-esque structure in high boots to evade the rattlesnakes that lurked outside. \u201cThe house was special,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe younger Paul\u2019s relationship with Braunstein, however, was cold \u2014 ever since Les Paul died in 2009 of severe pneumonia complications amid what Gene characterizes as communication issues between Braunstein and the family. After Les\u2019 death, his girlfriend stayed in the house, per his request. At one point, there was an offer to buy the property from a wealthy benefactor who wanted to preserve the space, like jazz icon Rudy Van Gelder\u2019s studio in nearby Englewood Cliffs, or the previously derelict home of John and Alice Coltrane in New York, but it was reportedly declined. (Braunstein and the foundation did not respond to a detailed list of questions for this story.)<\/p>\n

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\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tLes\u2019 companion moved out in late 2024 when she became too infirm to live alone, and the former legend\u2019s friend, Mahwah Mayor James Wysocki, entered the property for the first time in nearly two decades. Even as a former cop, he was shocked by the state of the place. \u201cThere\u2019s holes in the roof; you can see the sky in the living room,\u201d he says. \u201cThere were rattlesnakes in there \u2014 there [had been] a bear in there.\u201d Wysocki claims that the house was in decline even when Les was still living there; he was slow to address problems, like when a tree fell through the roof. After the basement flooded circa 2002, Wysocki says, the house was doomed. \u201cIt broke my heart to see it come down,\u201d he says, \u201cbut it had to. It probably had to come down when Les was alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe house quietly went up for sale in July and sold after 19 days for $990,000.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt could have had a beautiful historic plaque out in front of it,\u201d says Paul family friend JJ Whitney. \u201cThis is where rock<\/a> & roll was invented.\u201d Gene took out his ire via a Facebook post: \u201cThis wasn\u2019t just incompetence. It was a premeditated assassination of a landmark. It was cultural vandalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tThe Mahwah house in better days.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy The Les Paul Legacy group<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tAfter reviewing a copy of Les\u2019 1995 will acquired by Rolling Stone,<\/em> local probate lawyers Kenneth Vercammen and Christine Matus say the foundation was well within its rights to do what it wanted with the property. \u201cCertain assets were given to the foundation, and then the foundation trustees and directors had a right to do what they needed to do to further its mission,\u201d Matus says. Still, she points out that \u201ceverything is emotional when it comes to legacy planning,\u201d and \u201cit doesn\u2019t make a foundation look great\u201d that the property was allowed to decay before the sale. \u201cThe more they can communicate with the family and those who are interested in it, the better it would be.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tBraunstein declined an interview for this story, instead pointing to a statement posted on social media: \u201cClaims that Les Paul\u2019s legacy has been \u2018erased,\u2019 and that this represents an \u2018unforgivable failure to safeguard\u2019 it, or that the physical evidence of his work has been lost are completely inaccurate,\u201d it reads, highlighting other efforts to preserve Paul\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n

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\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tWysocki, for his part, has been working to make the new owners aware of the history of the house. The development company plans to preserve and renovate the acoustic echo chambers built into the basement, incorporate scavenged wood from the old structure into the construction, and create a memorabilia room (though, for now, any such features would only be accessible to the new owners).<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, Gene Paul mourns the loss of his old home. \u201cThe family figured that at some point Michael would come to us and say, \u2018Listen, it\u2019s inevitable that the house is going to go, but let\u2019s get together and have a send-off,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cWe all hoped for that. It never happened. Instead, I\u2019m getting a picture of bulldozers wiping the house out, wiping the legacy out.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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