Man With Mullet And American Flag Guitar Was Jaguars Secret Weapon
There's nothing quite like the national anthem being played on electric guitar. Just the way whoever set Francis Scott Key's poem to music intended. The Jaguars clearly knew that and used it to their advantage against the Tennessee Titans on Saturday night.
Ever since Jimi Hendrix busted out his upside-down Fender Strat and melted thousands of hippy faces at Woodstock, rockers have given their spin on the "Star-Spangled Banner." Slash has done it, James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett from Metallica have done it, and now Duval County, Florida's own Paul Wane has too.
Wane wowed the crowd — and perhaps, even more, the internet — with a shreddy take on the anthem. Better still, he played it on a star-spangled Fender Telecaster-style axe.
You have to think the Tennesse Titans were shaking in their cleats as the slow realization that their post-season hopes were evaporating as Wane started that wah-pedal-soaked rendition.
Honestly, it brings a tear to your eye.
It turns out that Wane is the guitarist for a band called Duval County Line, but perhaps even cooler is that he runs a charity called Guitars 4 Kids. It was through that charity that Wane, his guitar, and mullet, got to play the anthem at TIAA Bank Field.
Guitars 4 Kids has handed out over 200 guitars to budding musicians in the last two years. One of them fell into the hands of a Jags security worker's son.
“We gave an instrument to a young man, and it turns out his father works security here at the stadium,” Wane told News4Jax. “He got to talking to some of his co-workers about it, and they invited me to do this.”
If you're into advanced analytics, the Jaguars are 1-0 when Paul Wane plays the anthem. I'm not sure about you, but I'd be all for Wane's shredding becoming a Jags staple from here on out.
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