Who was the first artist to show instrument destruction live and when and where?
“Jerry Lee Lewis may be the first rock artist to destroy his equipment on stage, with several, possibly erroneous, stories of him destroying and burning pianos in the 1950s. In the mid 1960s, guitarist Pete Townshend of The Who was the first guitar-smashing rock artist. Rolling Stone magazine included his smashing of a Rickenbacker guitar at the Railway Hotel in September 1964 in their list of the “50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock & Roll”. A student of Gustav Metzger, Townshend saw his guitar smashing as a kind of auto-destructive art. Keith Moon, The Who’s drummer, was also known for destroying his drum set. The most spectacular episode of this occurred during The Who’s debut on U.S. television on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967. Moon overloaded his bass drum with explosive charges which were detonated during the finale of the song, “My Generation.” The explosion caused guest Bette Davis to faint, set Pete Townshend’s hair on fire and, according to legend, contrib
