Prince Gives Away Tonight Show Guitar, Takes It Back

If you didn’t catch Prince’s second night on Leno last night, you sure missed out on a rocking version of “Dreamer,” from Lotusflow3r. The best part was when Prince brought it home with one of his trademark guitar solos and handed his guitar to a surprised audience member, which ended the song in a sea of feedback. We thought it was funny how Jay Leno was struggling to give his “Stay tuned for Jimmy Fallon” pitch while Prince’s guitar was still pulsating in the background.

As it turns out, the lucky guy who had Prince’s Cloud Guitar land on his lap was a TMZ staffer. Ugh. So naturally, he hopped on the paparazzi gossip site to complain about being stripped of the axe before he had a chance to list it on Ebay.

“After another 30 seconds or so, someone came around and retrieved the guitar,” said TMZ’s surnameless Daniel. “Now, I was all excited about this whole thing — calling and texting everyone I can think of. But when I came to work today, everyone said the same thing — PRINCE OWES YOU A GUITAR. I believe Harvey’s quote was, ‘You’re a schmuck for giving it back.’”

I’ve seen rock stars throw guitars in the audience before and always wondered if they get to keep it. We need some legal precedent on this stuff, right? Maybe Daniel’s boss Harvey Levin can use his J.D. degree for some good and get on the case.