JIM IRSAY COLLECTION
R. E. M., Mike Wanchic from John Mellencamp’ s band, Kenny Aronoff who has drummed for everyone from Mellencamp to the Rolling Stones to Dylan, and others weren’ t there as celebrity adornments. They were there because they understood what it meant to play with history rather than around it. And there’ s a reason Shepherd belongs in the story beyond the name: this project treats the instruments like tools that still have work to do.
Onstage, the line between artifact and instrument deliberately blurred. They were tuned, strapped on, and played. Sound came out of them again. John Mayer played Gilmour’ s Black Strat. Peter Frampton handled Les Paul’ s personal Gibson.
“ Get the guitars into the hands of musicians” was Irsay’ s operating principle. The collection breathed because it was allowed to. It made mistakes. It traveled. It played. It raised money for mental health initiatives through Irsay’ s Kicking the Stigma campaign, which has donated over $ 25 million to mental health organizations since 2016, and opened doors for conversations that don’ t happen easily in polite settings. It behaved like culture, not like capital. That is what made the Jim Irsay Collection feel alive.
JIM IRSAY PHOTO COURTESY OF THE INDIANAPOLIS COLTS
32 | SPRING 2026