John Lennon’s ‘Sgt. Pepper’ Piano On The Auction Block

The iconic piano that John Lennon used to write the Beatles’ masterpiece album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is on the auction block, and if you have a big bank account and a place to put it, the legendary music equipment can be yours. TMZ reported that Lennon’s piano is scheduled to be auctioned off by Gotta Have Rock and Roll to the tune of upwards of a cool $1.2 million.

This piano was housed when it was owned by the singer and songwriter at Lennon’s Kenwood home at St. George’s Hill estate in Weybridge, England. There is a plaque on the keyboard that lists some of the songs the Beatles co-frontman composed for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

“[O]n this piano was written ‘A Day In The Life,’ ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,’ ‘Good Morning, Good Morning,” ‘Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite’ and others.”

The plaque concludes with the words “John Lennon 1971.”

The auction, which is only held online, will begin on April 10 and will end April 19.

While the minimum bid on the piano is over $500,000, there are plenty of other items up for sale if that one is too rich for your Beatles blood. Also for sale are a Beatles 1963 handwritten and signed set list, a signed Hard Day’s Night album, a Paul McCartney Signed And Played Ed Sullivan Show Epiphone 1964 Texan Limited Edition guitar, a signed photo still from the film Help, and many more exciting and interesting items.

Rolling Stone reported in 2017 that prior to the making of Sgt. Pepper, the band was at a crossroads, both personally and professionally. After their 1966 tour, the Beatles took a brief hiatus and in November of that same year, headed to EMI’s Abbey Road Studios in London to record what would eventually become Sgt. Pepper.

The outlet reported that during their hiatus, Lennon had penned “Strawberry Fields Forever,” which was a huge break from the kind of tunes the band had written prior, giving them a creative inspiration they desperately needed after years where they were either on the road or in the recording studio.

“We could not have produced a better prototype for the future,” producer George Martin stated of the song, per Rolling Stone.

Looking to distance themselves from the image of the lovable mop-tops they had long been associated with, it was Paul McCartney who came up with the idea of making a concept album where the songs for what would eventually morph into Sgt. Pepper would be written from the perspective of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, not the Beatles. This would give the group more creative license than ever before.

In 2017, it was reported that the album had sold over 32 million copies and is considered one of the greatest rock albums ever written.