![Neal Schon Bought 150 Guitars During Pandemic](https://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2022/06/attachment-schon.jpg?w=980&q=75)
Neal Schon Bought 150 Guitars During Pandemic
Neal Schon revealed that he had bought 150 guitars during the pandemic, admitting he became hooked on expanding his collection.
The Journey guitarist already owned 650 instruments before he started his shopping spree, and that total was reduced from a previously higher number.
"I kept buying, buying, buying, buying, and it became like a hobby," Schon told People in a recent interview. “It was like being hooked on something, like gambling — I don't gamble. That became the thing that I liked doing during the pandemic, besides writing new material. ... It was a lot, and it was a lot of money, too."
His wife, Michaele, didn’t mind him “piling up” a new set of guitars, but he admitted she was “happy to see them go to the warehouse.” None of his purchases replaced his all-time favorite: a 1956 Les Paul she gave him for his 65th birthday in 2019.
“It’s the oldest guitar I own, and it sounds amazing,” he noted. Asked if he had written a song about her with it, he said, “It hasn’t been a requirement, but it’s inevitable that it will happen. I’ve written her other songs already, but I didn’t have that guitar when I wrote them.”
Schon also explained why he closed his Instagram account, saying it was in response to attacks from “constant imposters and hackers.” "There are so many scams," he said. "I shut down imposters every day when I was on there, and I just got so tired. I’d look at my phone at the end of the day and go, ‘How many hours did I spend on here trying to clean up stuff?’”
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