“He knocked on the door of his girlfriend’s ex. The guy said, ‘No, man, not my guitar!’ ‘Yep, you’ve got to give it up’”: George Benson on how he got the Gibson that shaped his 1976 chart-topping record, Breezin’

After releasing more than 40 albums across a genre-hopping career that never shied away from six-string experimentation, George Benson is now launching a new chapter with Breezin’ With The Stars – a four-day workshop-meets-interactive music event. He also recently announced the sale of some of his most iconic guitars.

Linking the two? His iconic Gibson Johnny Smith, which played a crucial role in the making of his career-defining record Breezin’, which topped the jazz, R&B, and pop charts simultaneously in 1976 – no easy or common feat.

In a new interview with Guitarist, Benson looks back on how he managed to get his hands on this storied Gibson, which is now currently listed on Reverb for a whopping $999,999.

“I had just purchased it from one of the bravest guys I’d ever met,” he exclaims. “His girlfriend sent him to her old boyfriend’s house to get the guitar she had just bought for him before they broke up.

“He went over there and knocked on the guy’s door. I’d call that brave! The guy came to the door and said, ‘No, man, not my guitar!’ He said, ‘Yep, you’ve got to give it up.’”

John Doe managed to wrestle the guitar away from his girlfriend’s ex, and then went to Benson’s house to try and sell it to him.

“He didn’t play guitar and said, ‘Man, I’ve got a guitar here, and somebody said you might be interested.’ I said, ‘Let me see it.’ It was an old Johnny Smith guitar.”

On closer inspection, though, Benson realized the instrument wasn’t old at all – it was a “brand-new Johnny Smith guitar”.

“I knew what it was worth, but I made him an offer of about half of what it was really worth,” Benson adds. “He said, ‘Man, can’t you give me more than that?’ I said, ‘Okay, I’ll add another $50.’ He said, ‘Well, that’s more than the other guys, you got it.’”

Benson successfully bought the guitar but didn’t think much of it, stashing it in his closet until he went to record a new album for Warner Brothers, the label he had just signed with.

“I said, ‘I think that new guitar might be something I can play.’ I took it with me and that’s what people were hearing. So it was the Johnny Smith guitar and the Polytone amplifier [that made the record what it is].”

For more from George Benson, plus new interviews with Marcus King and Myles Kennedy, pick up issue 518 of Guitarist at Magazines Direct.