Latest news with #ES-345
San Francisco Chronicle
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Huey Lewis joins search for missing ‘Back to the Future' guitar, talks hearing loss
Huey Lewis is lending a hand in recovering Marty McFly's iconic guitar from 'Back to the Future.' Various stars of the 1985 science-fiction film have united to support an international effort to uncover the whereabouts of the cherry red ES-345 guitar that McFly played 'Johnny B. Goode' on in honor of the film's 40th anniversary. Gibson, the guitar's manufacturer, is leading the effort and enlisted the Huey Lewis and the News singer, who made music for the film and had an on-screen cameo, along with others such as franchise stars Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson, Christopher Lloyd and Harry Waters Jr., for a call to action video released Tuesday, June 3. 'Well, it's pretty amazing, really. I mean, to think about what it might be worth, right?' Lewis told People Magazine. 'So whoever's got this thing, wherever it is. I mean, forget the actual guitar and the financial thing, there's a great story there, obviously.' He also speculated that since there were several guitar techs on set, 'maybe somebody fell on hard times and had to sell it.' 'Who knows what that story is,' Lewis continued. 'But it's fairly interesting and apparently, because of the frets, it will be identifiable' Those with information about the guitar's location can submit tips online at or by calling 1-855-345-1955. Meanwhile, Gibson Films is working on a documentary about the search, featuring interviews with cast members and musicians that have been inspired by 'Back to the Future,' including Lewis. The Grammy-winning musician wrote and performed the hit song 'The Power of Love' for the film, but has since retired from live performances after announcing that he suffers from significant hearing loss due to Ménière's disease in 2018. During a recent conversation with People Magazine, Lewis shared a positive outlook on the diagnosis. 'This is my cross to bear. I have a cochlear implant in my head that now enables me to hear speech much better,' he said, noting that he still can't hear music. 'I'm still a lucky guy and there are lots of people out there worse than I am. And it is very hard to remember that sometimes, but my kids help me do that. … You have to rebalance and things, but it doesn't mean that life is terrible.' Though he's not able to enjoy music the way he used to, Lewis' disease hasn't stopped him. In 2020, Huey Lewis and the News put out its first new project in 19 years, ' Weather,' which was recorded around five to six years prior to Lewis' hearing loss. He also devoted time to the jukebox musical, ' The Heart of Rock and Roll,' centered on his band's 1980s hits such as 'The Power of Love' and 'I Want a New Drug,' and a still-to-be-released mockumentary series that delves into his life and hearing loss.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
A Key 'Back to the Future Prop' Has Been Missing Since Filming Wrapped. Why Michael J. Fox Is Hoping to Find It (Exclusive)
The iconic Gibson guitar Marty McFly plays in Back to the Future has been missing for nearly 40 years As the film approaches its milestone, its stars are reuniting to try and find the prop, in a hunt documented in a new film, Lost to the Future Stars Michael J. Fox and Lea Thompson speak to PEOPLE exclusively about their movie memories as they embark on the search alongside their costarsFire up your flux capacitors, because we may need a time machine for this one. In honor of the 40th anniversary of the release of Back to the Future, the film's primary cast members have joined forces with Gibson Guitars on a quest to track down one of the most iconic pieces of memorabilia from the film: Michael J. Fox's (Marty McFly's) red ES-345 that he played 'Johnny B. Goode' on at the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance. 'I was born in the '60s when there was an explosion of very important music," Fox, 63, tells PEOPLE of the genesis of his love for music that ultimately manifested in the iconic film scene. "My brother listened to them all, and I was 7 years old listening to Blind Faith and Rare Earth. I always wanted to be a rock 'n' roll guitarist, that's all I wanted to do. It's always been a passion of mine, rock 'n' roll, and particularly the guitar, there's just something about it, like you are wringing the magic and the music out of it.' To accomplish this monumental feat and hopefully unearth a lost treasure of film history, the legendary instrument manufacturer has launched an international hunt for the guitar, accompanied by a call-to-action video released on Tuesday, June 3, featuring Fox, as well as fellow cast members Lea Thompson, Christopher Lloyd, Harry Waters Jr., Huey Lewis and more. Thompson, 64, tells PEOPLE that although she considers Fox's famed BTTF instrument "an incredible guitar," she really has little idea what could have happened to it once filming wrapped. "When we made [the first] Back to the Future, we didn't even think we were going to make a sequel," Thompson tells PEOPLE. "There was no sequel deal, there was no concept of that. I mean, that's how long ago it was. So people weren't like Star Wars taking the props and everything. I only have the dress and the shoes and the jewelry from the prom." Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. The actress continues, "I have no idea how [the guitar] slipped through people's hands. I mean, the first thing I thought was maybe one of the prop masters had it ... but then I knew it was super expensive ... so it had to go somewhere." Lewis shares a similar sentiment to PEOPLE, noting that Back to the Future has become "The Wizard of Oz for a new generation" while pondering what could have happened to Fox's instrument. "Well, it's pretty amazing, really. I mean, to think about what it might be worth, right?" says "The Power of Love" singer, 74. "So whoever's got this thing, wherever it is. I mean, forget the actual guitar and the financial thing, there's a great story there, obviously." Lewis continues by noting that there were "quite a few guitar techs" working on the production at the time. "Maybe somebody fell on hard times and had to sell it, or I don't know. Who knows what that story is, but it's fairly interesting and apparently, because of the frets, it will be identifiable." To accompany the hunt for the guitar, Gibson Films has begun production on a new documentary film titled Lost to the Future. The forthcoming project will peel the curtain back even further on the hunt for the ES-345, featuring even more in-depth interviews with Fox, Thompson, Lloyd, Waters Jr., Lewis and the film's co-creator/screenwriter/producer Bob Gale, as well as a select group of world-renowned musicians that have been inspired by the film over the decades. The documentary's director, Doc Crotzer (Roadhouse, Glee), as well as Mark Agnesi (Director of Brand Experience at Gibson), "will guide viewers in the global hunt for this legendary instrument, from long-forgotten film prop warehouses, fascinating vintage guitar shops, auction houses and shadowy back alleys," according to an official press release from Gibson. Those who may have any information related to the whereabouts of the guitar are encouraged to submit tips by visiting and calling the tip line at 1-888-345-1955. The site also allows those who are curious to sign up and stay updated about the hunt, and whether or not the instrument is ultimately found. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Have you seen Marty McFly's iconic cherry red guitar? Gibson launches search for long-lost 'Back to the Future' prop
Hill Valley, Calif.: The search for Marty McFly's missing cherry red guitar is underway after it mysteriously vanished several decades ago, and the hope is that it could be recovered without a DeLorean. Gibson — the brand behind the iconic ES-345 that star Michael J. Fox wields in Back to the Future for a memorable performance of Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" — has launched a global search for the instrument, which filmmakers discovered missing 40 years ago during the making of the 1989 sequel. Alongside the film's stars, which also include Lea Thompson and Christopher Lloyd, Gibson has called on fans to assist with the search. Have any information on its whereabouts? Tips can be sent to Gibson online at or via call/text at 1-855-345-1955. The search was launched in tandem with Gibson Films' Lost to the Future, an upcoming documentary about the search for the elusive guitar and the impact the film — namely, Marty McFly's guitar solo scene — has had on music superstars today, including Coldplay's Chris Martin and singer-songwriter John Mayer. Fox's time-traveling teen shreds the cherry red ES-345 during the 'Enchantment Under the Sea' school dance in Robert Zemeckis's 1985 classic, stunning the crowd with a hit that had yet to be released. Fox and his costars, as well as the film's co-writer and producer Bob Gale, provide in-depth interviews in the upcoming doc from director Doc Crotzer, which also coincides with the film's 40th anniversary. "This guitar has been lost to the future," Lloyd says in the doc's trailer. Fox adds, 'It's somewhere lost in the space-time continuum, or it's in some teamster's garage.' 'This is the movie that made me want to be a filmmaker, and the scene that made me pick up a guitar for the first time,' Crotzer said in a statement. "As children of the '80s, it is our duty to take fans of music, fans of the movie, and fans of true crime documentaries with us on this too-crazy-to-believe quest to find our generation's Excalibur.' 'Guitar has always been a big part of my life,' Fox said in his own statement. 'When we talked about the 'Enchantment Under The Sea' scene, I sat down with the cinematographer and choreographer and said I want to riff through all of my favorite guitarists, like doing Jimi Hendrix behind the head, Pete Townshend doing a windmill, and the Eddie [Van Halen] hammer thing, it was so cool that they were open to that, and we laid it all out there." "I'm really happy with the scene because it was an expression of my love for guitar and all the great players," Fox added. "I didn't realize the influence the scene had on people. John Mayer said, 'I play guitar because of you,' and Chris Martin said the same thing, and I am glad they took it further than I did [and] went to the trouble of being really good players. I just love the guitar, and I love the movie." Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Michael J. Fox Wants Your Help Finding His Long-Lost ‘Back to the Future' Guitar
Michael J. Fox and Gibson guitars are searching for the cherry red ES-345 guitar that the actor famously played in Back to the Future, which has been missing since the late 1980s. Fox played the guitar during the film's pivotal scene at the 'Enchantment Under the Sea' dance, as his character Marty McFly tried to make sure his high school-aged parents fell in love. Filling in for injured bandleader Marvin Berry (Harry Waters Jr.), Marty rips a rendition of 'Johnny B. Goode' (with some hair metal-style solos for good measure) that's several years too early for the 1955 audience — though Marvin famously calls his cousin Chuck to tip him off to this 'new sound.' More from Rolling Stone Michael J. Fox Will Return to Acting With Guest Role on 'Shrinking' Season 3 Wear the Movies: Uniqlo Debuts New Universal T-Shirts Featuring Films Like "Jaws", "Back to the Future" The 'Cobra Kai' Creators Teased a 'Back to the Future' Show in the Series Finale. Is That Possible? While the scene instantly became one of the most iconic moments from the smash 1985 movie, by the time Fox and the Back to the Future creative team reunited for the 1989 sequel, the guitar was missing. 'It's somewhere lost in the spacetime continuum, or it's in some teamsters garage,' Fox quipped in a short promo video announcing the search. The clip also features several other Back to the Future actors, including Waters, Christopher Lloyd, and Lea Thompson, as well as the film's writer, Bob Gale. Huey Lewis, who provided music for the original film and had a small cameo as a high school talent show judge, even makes an appearance. As for the actual search, fans who might have information pertaining to the whereabouts of the cherry red ES-345 can contact Gibson via the website or by calling or texting 1-855-345-1955. In a statement, Fox spoke about his long love of music and called the 'Enchantment Under the Sea' scene 'an expression of my love for guitar and all the great players,' from Jimi Hendrix to Eddie Van Halen. He also noted the significant influence the scene has had on other musicians, recalling, 'John Mayer said, 'I play guitar because of you,' and Chris Martin said the same thing.' Fox continued: 'I am glad they took it further than I did, they went to the trouble of being really good players. I just love the guitar, and I love the movie.' Mark Agnesi, a guitar aficionado and director of brand experience at Gibson, said he's been looking for the Gibson for years. He started his search way back in 2009 when he began working at the hallowed shop Norman's Rare Guitars in Los Angeles, adding, 'After 16 years of searching, I'm so excited to get the entire guitar community together to help find the guitar that made me, and so many other guitarists of my generation, want to learn to play.' The hunt for the guitar notably coincides with the 40th anniversary of the release of Back to the Future. Gibson Films is also helping to produce Doc Crotzer's upcoming documentary, Lost to the Future, which will chronicle the search for the guitar while also looking at the legacy and making of the film. Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Best 'Saturday Night Live' Characters of All Time Denzel Washington's Movies Ranked, From Worst to Best 70 Greatest Comedies of the 21st Century
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Gibson Launches A Search for The Iconic 'Marty McFly' Guitar From ‘Back to the Future'
The guitar that Marty McFly famously played at the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance in Back to the Future has been missing for decades, and hopefully it won't take a DeLorean and a flux capacitor to find it. Gibson — the guitar brand behind the iconic cherry red ES-345 Michael J. Fox wielded in the movie — announced that it's on the hunt for the guitar, with the company sharing a callout Tuesday asking for anyone who may have details on its location to reach out with tips. 'Have You Seen This Guitar?' Gibson's poster reads, accompanied by a still from the movie of Fox playing the instrument. The search — and if all goes the way Gibson would like, the re-discovery — will be featured in an upcoming documentary the company is producing called Lost to the Future. More from The Hollywood Reporter Tate McRae, Mariah Carey and Ed Sheeran Heading to Vegas for iHeartRadio Music Festival Taylor Swift's Old Album Streams More Than Double on Spotify After Catalog Deal Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" Passes 1 Billion Spotify Streams Gibson posted a video Tuesday with Back to the Future stars Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson and Christopher Lloyd — along with Huey Lewis, who cameoed in the film and whose 'The Power of Love' was famously featured in the movie — all calling on the public to send information to their website, or to call the 800-line Gibson has set up. 'We need your help, we're trying to find the guitar I played in Back to the Future,' Fox said in the video. 'It's somewhere lost in the space-time continuum, or it's in some teamster's garage.' The company initiated the search and documentary this year to tie the efforts to Back to the Future's 40th anniversary, and Gibson is also featuring an interview with Michael J. Fox on Oct. 21 ('Back to the Future Day') and will release custom guitars modeled after the original Gibson they're searching for, Gibson said. 'We've been looking into leads and rumors for a long time, and as you can imagine, we're talking 40 years ago, so memories fade,' Lost to the Future director Doc Crotzer tells The Hollywood Reporter. 'We weren't in the era of digital trails, or of receipts and things like that. There are conflicting reports too. You can find about as many different rumors as you can people.' Indeed, there are several different stories about what happened to the guitar. The Back to the Future team first rented the instrument from Norman's Rare Guitars, a famous guitar shop in Los Angeles, when they were filming the first movie. They'd returned the guitar after they finished shooting, and per Crotzer and Mark Agnesi — Gibson's director of brand experience and Norman's former GM from 2009 to 2019, that's where their trail currently goes cold. Crotzer first asked Agnesi about the guitar around a decade ago when Agnesi was still working at Norm's, and several years ago, after Crotzer first spoke with Back to the Future co-creator Bob Gale, he'd approached Agnesi again at Gibson. Agnesi and Crotzer list off several rumors, like that the guitar was headed to auction in the '80s but never made it there for a sale. A likely scenario, they say, is that someone simply bought it from Norm's and the origins of the sale have been lost. Norman's owner, Norman Harris, has given several interviews in the past, suggesting he sold it to a friend, who eventually sold it to a woman who came back to his store years later and offered $1 million to sell it back. But Harris had also suggested in the past that it'd been sold to someone in Japan. Needless to say, so far Gibson and Crotzer haven't tracked the guitar yet. Aside from the public inquiry, Crotzer says the film is taking them through prop houses and guitar shops as well. 'I knew that guitar came from Norm's, the first day on the job, I was looking in cases,' Agnesi says. 'Every time I'd go to storage to Norm's warehouse, I was checking ES-cases to see if he still had it. I've been looking since 2009, 15 years of looking for this thing. It's cool we're going to let the world know we're looking for it and everyone gets to join in.' Gale tells THR that he 'never gave it that much thought' on what happened to the guitar before he was told it was missing in around 2019, but that since then he's become more invested in tracking it down. 'It's like we want to put it on milk cartons, 'have you seen me,'' Gale says with a slight chuckle, describing the search efforts. 'We rented the guitar again for Part 2, but I've learned that guitar might not have been the one we used in the first film. So the question is, what happened to the original?' Back to the Future's high school dance scene is one of the most memorable guitar scenes in the history of the film business, as Marty McFly unintentionally inspires the creation of Chuck Berry's 'Johnny B. Goode' by performing the song with the band on stage, eventually losing the crowd as his performance devolves into a Van Halen-style guitar solo. Artists, including John Mayer and Coldplay's Chris Martin, have called that scene in the movie instrumental in inspiring them to pursue music. The scene almost never happened, as Robert Zemeckis contemplated going straight from the kiss to the scene at the clock tower, but it stayed in after testing at a preview when the audience reacted positively to it. 'We had no idea it would be part of the film's legacy, the Johnny B. Goode scene is the only scene in the entire movie which doesn't really advance the character or plot. We were basically doing what they do in India, where we stopped the movie for a musical number,' Gale says. 'It's been amazing over the years to discover how important that particular scene was to people. It inspired so many people to pick up a guitar and be a rock and roller.' Gibson says the guitar in the movie was likely a 1960 or 1961 ES-345 (Its use in the film was a historical inaccuracy, given most of the movie was supposed to take place in 1955 and the 345 didn't hit shelves until three years later). An early '60s 345 on its own could already fetch $25,000 to $50,000 given how sought-after vintage Gibsons are, but its place as one of film's most iconic guitars makes it priceless. Gibson and the doc team don't have the guitar's serial number, which would be the easiest way to identify a specific instrument. Luckily, they say, the guitar has a key identifier that makes it stand out. Usually, the ES-345 models would have a split parallelogram inlay going completely down the fretboard, but on the guitar in the movie, the 12th fret had a single sold bar marker on it instead, a rare anomaly that would make the guitar more unmistakable. 'That's the smoking gun if we're being honest,' Agnesi says. 'It's that inlay on the 12th fret that's really going to let us know that we found it.' Overall, the team feels confident their search will be successful, even if the search has to go well outside the country. Agnesi has a 'Japan theory' for the guitar's whereabouts, given a vintage guitar boom that hit the country in the '80s. He said Gibson's international teams in Japan, China and Europe will help spread the word as well. As for what they'll do if they actually do find it? That's still to be determined, though Crotzer said, 'there's something poetic about the idea of reuniting this guitar with Michael J. Fox, whether it's for an hour, or forever.' 'My hope would be whoever has this guitar is enough of a fan of the movies to allow that to happen. There are a lot of possible scenarios. Does the person who has it want to be found? Do they want to, say, lend us the guitar?' Agnesi says he'd like to get the guitar in a place it can be showcased for 'as many people to have a chance to see it as possible.' 'If that means Gibson buys it for their collection and puts it in the vault, I am absolutely 100 percent ready to start talking with anybody who comes forward who might have the guitar about potentially buying it,' Agnesi says. Still, as Gale says, the focus remains on finding the guitar right now. 'At this point, we just kind of want to know it's in good hands and is being well taken care of,' he says. 'Everything else you figure out after that, but let's solve that mystery first.' 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