“I went to his house one day, and he said, ‘What’s in my attic? Climb up there and have a look.’ He gave me the 12-string I used on Nights in White Satin”: How Justin Hayward ended up with Lonnie Donegan’s 12-string – before Donegan took it back

Of the Moody Blues’ many classics, Nights in White Satin remains the band’s calling card, having racked up a whopping 245 million streams on Spotify.

As many ’60s-era classics do, Nights in White Satin has a fascinating story to go with it, with this particular one involving a beat-up 12-string from the collection of pioneering British guitar hero Lonnie Donegan.

In the new issue of Guitar World, Moody Blues guitarist and singer Justin Hayward revealed how the guitar in question came into, subsequently out of (and back into again) his possession.

“I had a guitar Lonnie Donegan had given me. I went to his house one day, and he said, ‘What’s in my attic? Climb up there and have a look,’” Hayward recounted to GW. “So I went up – there were a few things, and he said, ‘That’s shit. I don’t want that. You can have it.’ He gave me a Francis 12-string that I renovated. I did the nut and the bridge and fixed the neck. That was the 12-string I used on Nights in White Satin, Fly Me High – everything.”

Though Donegan thought little of the 12-string at the time, following the guitar’s restoration and its prominent use, Donegan, astutely, re-valued the guitar.

“Because the guitar became famous, Lonnie sent someone around when I was out. He said, ‘Can Lonnie borrow that 12-string?’ My girlfriend said OK, and the guy said, ‘I’ll bring it back tomorrow.’ And it never came back.”

Nights In White Satin – YouTube

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Hayward never (proverbially) lost sight of the acoustic, buying it back from Donegan’s wife after the influential skiffle king passed away decades later.

Though he’s never occupied the place in popular consciousness of your Carl Perkins’s and Scotty Moore’s, it can be argued that Lonnie Donegan is just as influential, having hugely inspired, to name the most prominent example, the Beatles.

Rory Gallagher, for one, also idolized Donegan enough that he – upon finding out to his surprise that Donegan was backstage at one of his shows – was nervous to the point that he could barely bring himself to walk onstage.

To read our full interview with Hayward – which also covers his favorite lesser-known Moody Blues tunes, his (other) go-to gear, and his creative process – pick up a copy of the new issue of the mag at Magazines Direct.