Forget burial, cremation or being stuffed. Hands down the best thing that can happen to you after you die is having your skeleton turned into a playable guitar.
That’s what a Florida metal fan named ‘Prince Midnight’ did when he got hold of the bones of a relative.
Speaking to Metal Sucks, Prince explained how he decided to turn the bones of a metal-loving uncle into a guitar, complete with neck, pickups, volume knobs and all the other things you need to make a real life - pardon the pun – instrument.
The short version is that Prince got hold of the skeleton a couple of decades after his Uncle Filip died in a car crash in his native Greece. The bones were originally donated to a local college school, but eventually found their way to Florida (there’s a lot of bureaucracy involved in that one, as you can imagine).
Rather than just have them kicking around the house, he decided to honour Filip by using his ribcage, spine and pelvis as the basis for a guitar. After much research and more than one WTF from his local guitar shop techs, he decided to make a go of it himself and build the world’s first – zing! – ‘Skelecaster’.
“Anyways, now Uncle Filip can shred for all eternity,” Prince Midnight explained. “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.
This is definitely the weirdest story we've heard in a long time – but it’s also one of the coolest. What metal fan wouldn’t want their mortal remains to be turned into an actual guitar?
You can read the full story over at Metal Sucks, but for now check out the photos from the different stages of the build – and a listen to video of Prince Midnight playing Darkthrone’s Transilvanian Hunger on, well, Uncle Filip.