Herman Li invites Phoebe Bridgers to destroy his $5,000 guitar onstage: “Smash it up, burn it, make it expensive!”
“Come on, you’re on Saturday Night Live, you can’t be smashing a $500 guitar – too cheap!”
Photos: Scott Dudelson / Getty, Gary Miller / FilmMagic
Herman Li has praised Phoebe Bridgers for her recent guitar smash on Saturday Night Live, even offering the singer-songwriter one of his own guitars the next time she decides to smash an instrument onstage.
“The main problem I have is: that guitar is too cheap. It’s only $500 for that guitar. Next time she’s gonna smash up a guitar, make it a $3,000 guitar,” the DragonForce guitarist said in a Twitch stream.
“I’ll give her one of my $3,000 guitars,” he continued. “You can take one of my signature guitars, smash that up. How about that PRS? Take that PRS. Smash that up, that’s like a $5,000 guitar.”
Li added: “Come on, you’re on Saturday Night Live you can’t be smashing a $500 guitar – too cheap! You’ve got to take it to another level. Smash it up, burn it, make it expensive! Annoy people even more!”
Finally issuing a formal invitation to Bridgers, Li said: “Phoebe if you’re listening to me […] if you want to smash another guitar, let me know – let’s get you a real guitar to smash up.”
“My last guitar sold for $16,000 – so maybe one of those.”
Flippancy aside, Li commended the young musician for her performance. “It was cool. People that have never seen the kind of thing go, ‘Oh my gosh you’re destroying something,’ and it’s like, ‘Sorry, it’s part of the show.’ It’s not really such a big deal,” he said. “Welcome to the world of music or rock.”
“People complain rock music or metal is dead. You can’t do something crazy and fun anymore.”
Watch Li’s entire reaction video below:
Other musicians have also weighed in on the issue, including David Crosby, who called the stunt “childish stage drama”, to which Bridgers responded by calling the 79-year-old folk icon a “little bitch”.
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