It’s not every day that you wake up and find that your one true purpose in life has been snatched from you by a former Rolling Stones bassist.
Over the weekend, an auction featuring a treasure trover of items from the personal collection of long-time Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman took place.
The auction broke multiple records, including most expensive bass guitar and amplifier sold at auction — and, most importantly, the most expensive toilet seat cover ever sold at auction.
The record-breaking bass was Wyman’s 1969 yellow Fender Mustang bass with a competition orange finish, which sold for a cool $384,000. Wyman used the guitar on Rolling Stones recordings between 1969 and 1970. Prior to Wyman’s bass, a left-handed Hofner owned by Paul McCartney in 1964, was the most expensive sale, the guitar sold at auction in 2013 for $204,800.
In addition to the guitar, Wyman’s 1962 Vox AC30 Normal model amplifier sold for $106,250, topping the $77,000 sale of two David Gilmour amplifiers sold at auction in 2019. The amp was used by Wyman to audition for the Rolling Stones.
Now for an archival piece that truly matters. A sumptuous yellow toilet cover embellished with the iconic Stones logo fetched $1,142, making it the most expensive toilet cover of all time.
These items were only the tip of the iceberg when it came to the goods sold through Julien’s Auctions over the weekend. The sale saw over 1,000 lots from Wyman’s archive, like instruments, gear, stage-worn costumes, awards, personal items and ephemera from his time with the Rolling Stones and as a solo artist.
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If you consider yourself a Stones tragic but can’t quite afford to withdraw your Super to purchase a toilet seat cover, fear not. The band recently unveiled plans to open a permanent flagship store in London at a9 Carnaby St. in Soho.
“Soho has always encapsulated rock ’n’ roll so Carnaby Street was the perfect spot for our own store,” The Stones said in a statement. “We are confident this exciting project that our friends at Bravado have created will be an unrivalled experience for everyone to come to London and enjoy.”
