When it comes to the disposal of their earthly remains, most metal fans probably go with the wisdom of Frank Reynolds: Bang me, eat me, grind me up into little pieces and throw me in the river. Who gives a shit, when you’re dead, you’re dead. That said, if there was one post-mortem activity your average metalhead might approve of, it’d be getting one’s bones turned into a badass guitar. Which is exactly what a metal fan from Greece did with his uncle’s skeleton.
As reported by MetalSucks, a man who refers to himself as Prince Midnight was stuck with his uncle’s bones, which had been hanging around for decades. Uncle Filip was a member of the Greek Orthodox Church, which frowns on cremation, and so requested that his skeleton be donated to the local university for study. His bones were then medically prepared, rendered, and given to the school…where, after 20 years, they were no longer useful.
Faced with paying considerable fees to keep his uncle’s bones in a box in the cemetery, Prince Midnight decided to instead begin the insane paperwork of repatriating his uncle’s bones…and eventually turned them into a working guitar.
“I got the box of bones from Greece and didn’t know what to do at first,” said Prince Midnight. “Bury them? Cremate them? Put them in the attic? All seemed like poor ways to memorialize someone who got me into heavy metal. So, I decided to turn Uncle Filip into a guitar, which proved to be challenging. I did a lot of research and no one has ever made a guitar out of a skeleton. So, I did it. I started out consulting with two guys in Dean Guitars’ wood shop in Tampa but they got cold feet.
“Anyways, now Uncle Filip can shred for all eternity. That’s how he would want it. I’m super proud of the project and how it serves to honor him, his life and his influence on me.”
Check out photos of the skeletar creation process below:
Whether or not Prince Midnight will be a playable character in the next Darkstalkers game remains to be seen.
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Words by Chris Krovatin
