The history of the 97X Green Room guitar. on 97xonline.com

It's actually an interesting, and incredibly long, rags to riches story.

Once there was a guitar. We found this guitar about around 2001 in a radio station prize closet. It was a piece of *&$# acoustic valued at about $19.63 and we didn't really know what to do with it. So rather than just destroying it à la Pete Townsend (it was so tempting) we kept it around. Because, you know, we might need it one day.

That day came in April of 2001 when 97X conducted the first real "Green Room": Lifehouse performed for about 20 listeners at the now defunct Pop City in Channelside. We figured this was a perfect opportunity to get the piece of *&$# acoustic guitar signed, thereby giving it a purpose. So we took it to the event and the guys of Lifehouse gladly signed it, but once we got back to the office we realized that we now have a piece of *&$# acoustic guitar signed by Lifehouse - what the hell are we going to do with that?

Once again, the thought of throwing it off the roof was discussed, but the final decision was that we'd save it as an auction item. Affectionately known as the "Lifehouse Guitar", it sat in our prize closet for over two years. Then in July of 2003, The Ataris came by the studios to perform their hit "Boys Of Summer" (photos). The only problem was their guitarist forgot to bring his guitar, so they asked us if we had a spare one lying about. Yes! The Lifehouse Guitar!

After attempting to tune the guitar (which was missing a string), it was used during their live performance on 97X, which they signed for us after they were done. Now, we had a piece of *&$# acoustic guitar signed by The Ataris and Lifehouse! Oh boy! So we did what anyone would do with a guitar signed by The Ataris and Lifehouse; we put it back in the prize closet. And there it sat until March of 2005.

At that time, we were thinking about the CD cover for 97X Green Room: Volume 1 and came up with the idea of a close up of a green guitar. Of course, we didn't have a green guitar, but we did have The Lifehouse Guitar! So Rusch took the guitar home, sanded off the autographes, then spray painted every inch of it green. He then took about 100 photos of the guitar in various positions. The cover shot was actually taken on his couch (also seen in the top picture).

So we now have this piece of *&$# acoustic guitar that was once autographed by Lifehouse and the Ataris now spray painted green. What are we going to do with it? We've started taking it to every 97X Green Room and having bands sign the piece of *&$# acoustic guitar. It's already sporting autographs by Rise Against, Paramore, 30 Seconds To Mars, Seether, The Almost, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and most recently Against Me! It's funny to see the band's faces when they are asked to sign the piece of *&$# guitar. Half of them think it's a joke and the other half just go ahead and sign it without question.

This piece of *&$# is bound to stay in the 97X family for years to come and we're sure to think of many other ways to complete disgrace it!