When Imagine Dragons performed at the Hollywood Bowl for a filmed concert event last October 27, their guitarist, Wayne Sermon, saw it as an opportunity to share something special with the group’s fans. And they’re getting an eyeful this week as the movie comes to theaters.
For the occasion, during which the band was accompanied by a full orchestra, Sermon brought out an exceedingly rare 1958 Gibson Les Paul goldtop that otherwise remains stashed at home and used only in the studio. The instrument is one of just 109 goldtop Standards that Gibson produced that year before switching over to the sunburst finish commonly found on the model from 1958 to 1960.
“My guitar tech, Shane Johnson, won’t let me bring my vintage guitars on the road, ‘cause he’s so paranoid,” says Sermon, who also owns a 1964 Fender Stratocaster.
“I don’t buy into a ton of hype as far as vintage instruments. But that guitar — you can believe every single bit of the hype.”
— Wayne Sermon
“They’re under his care and tutelage when we’re on the road, so he begs me, ‘Please don’t bring any nice guitars that are priceless artifacts on the road.’ So I don’t. Most of the stuff I play is new stuff.
“But since I live in L.A. and it was going to be such a special show, the vintage stuff could come down to the gig with me and go home with me, so I brought it.”
Johnson was actually responsible for Sermon acquiring the Les Paul, which Sermon saw advertised by Southside Guitars in Brooklyn.
“I thought, ‘That’s cool,’ but it was far way,” the guitarist recalls. “I’d just gotten off tour and didn’t want to get back on a plane. And I didn’t want to spend that much money, so, nah…
“Then Shane, who lives in Austin, Texas, was just at some guitar show there randomly. It turns out someone from the store had driven all the way from New York to Austin with a bunch of guitars and happened to bring that guitar I was looking at.
“Shane called me and said, ‘The guitar is here. It plays amazing. It’s providence calling!’ So I said, ‘Shit, all right, get the guitar. It needs to be mine.’
“It was a freak, wild thing, but I’m glad that happened. In some way, it was meant to be.”
And rest assured, Sermon suffered no buyer’s remorse once he had the Les Paul in hand.
“That guitar is so far beyond any other guitar I own, and I own some great stuff,” he says. “I don’t buy into a ton of hype as far as vintage instruments; I think people today are making guitars way better than they did in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s.
“But that guitar — you can believe every single bit of the hype. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know what they were doing at the Gibson factory between, like, ’57 and ’60, but the hype around those guitars is real. It’s kind of insane how much I love that guitar; It’s pretty much the only guitar I play when I’m at home, and I use it in the studio. It’s just my baby.
“I play it for a bunch of the show that got filmed, this orchestra show. That was really fun to be able to play it for that.”
Imagine Dragons: Live From the Hollywood Bowl (with the LA Film Orchestra) screens March 26 and 29 in theaters worldwide. (ImagineDragonsMovie.com for theater and ticket information.) Sermon says he expects it to move to streaming services at some point in the future as well.
Viewers will also get a look at other instruments in his guitar arsenal, mostly made by Bilt guitars in Iowa. “They make a bunch of guitars for me, for over a decade now,” Sermon says. “They’re one of those companies doing this better than most other guys. They have such an incredible team over there. I love that they’re a small brand and they hand-build their guitars.
“They are open-minded and put up with my hair-brained ideas. It’s fun to connect with people like that. It feels a bit more custom and you can actually talk to the makers on the phone, day or night.”
Sermon and his BilTs will be back on the road when Imagine Dragons resumes its Loom World Tour on April 4 in China, followed by a European leg that concludes during late July in London. Meanwhile, Sermon and bandmates Dan Reynolds and Ben McKee are “just starting” to work on Imagine Dragons’ next album, with no timetable yet in mind.
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