DETROIT — During a summer visit to a Motown recording studio, former Beatle Paul McCartney wanted to run his fingers along an 1877 Steinway grand piano played by some Detroit music greats he considers idols.
“He was disappointed when we told him it didn’t play,” Motown Historical Museum chief executive Audley Smith Jr. told The Detroit News.
Undaunted, the legendary rock-‘n’-roller from England told museum officials after a July concert at Comerica Park that he wanted to help restore it.
On Monday, the piano will be picked up from the Detroit museum and shipped to Steinway & Sons in New York for restoration. The work is expected to take up to five months.
“Steinway & Sons is honored 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,” said Steinway & Sons president of Americas Ron Losby in a statement.
The piano company has to assess the piano’s condition before a cost can be determined.
