Kurt Cobain’s ‘MTV Unplugged’ guitar sold for $6 million

If there was any doubt that 90s nostalgia is raging out of control, Kurt Cobain’s guitar from the 1993 MTV Unplugged special has just sold for $6 million USD. According to Rolling Stone, the sale set a new record for a guitar purchase, topping the $3.95 million paid for a black Stratocaster owned by Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour.

Cobain’s 1959 Martin D-18E received seven bids, with the winning bid coming in at $6,010,00, according to the site Julien’s Auctions, an auction house based in Beverly Hills, California. The winning bid came from Peter Freedman of Rode Microphones, who has plans to bring the guitar on tour with proceeds going to the performing arts.

The Nirvana MTV Unplugged saw the band perform a stripped-down set of Nirvana songs, along with covers of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World,” Leadbelly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night,” and a trio of Meat Puppets songs with the band’s Curt and Cris Kirkwood joining in with Nirvana.

The special was taped on November 18, 1993, and Kurt Cobain killed himself just five months later on April 5, 1994. Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York was released on November 1, 1994, and the somber recording was treated like an elegy to Cobain, who had died just a few months prior.

Revisit some tracks from the legendary MTV Unplugged performance below.