Paul McCartney commissions restoration of Motown piano

Sir Paul McCartney has commissioned experts from Steinway & Sons to restore the 1877 grand piano at the Motown museum in Detroit, Michigan.

The former Beatle was inspired to back the restoration project after visiting the Motown museum while on tour in Detroit in July 2011.

When I visited the Motown Museum, I remembered listening to records as a kid in Liverpool, learning the songs ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’ and ‘Money’. I said to myself, ‘Wow! This is the Holy Grail!’

McCartney asked if he could play the piano during his visit to the museum, but was told by a guide that the instrument was no longer in use. It is believed to have been last used in a recording session for The Commodores’ 1974 album Machine Gun.

He contacted restorers at Steinway & Sons, who picked up the piano on 31 October and shipped it to the Steinway Restoration Center in New York. Over the following five months the piano will be restored to its original condition.

Steinway & Sons is honoured to restore the historic Steinway piano that was used by such legends as Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder – and to do so in the very same New York factory where it was originally built in 1877.

We’re especially proud, as an American company, to help the Motown Museum in preserving the legacy of the Motown Record Company, whose artists and albums played such a vital role in one of the great eras of American music.