A combination of convenience, budgeting and metal has worked on a YouTuber, who used the bones of his deceased uncle to build an electric guitar, after it got too expensive to continue paying for storage at the cemetery his uncle’s remains were interned in—over 20 years ago.
As “Prince Midnight” writes on the YouTube video he uploaded of a performance using the skeleton, “The skeleton belonged to my beloved Uncle Filip who passed in the 90's, through a series of events his remains were repatriated to the US from Greece and ended up in my possession. He was a metal head and guitar player in life, and now he continues to shred in death!”.
The musician’s logic was multifold: Uncle Filip has originally donated his skeleton to a local college, were it was used for study by medical students. However, the school eventually returned the skeleton after 20 years, leading the family to pay rent to intern it in a wooden box in a cemetary. Speaking to Guitar World, Prince Midnight says the orthodoxy religion in Greece frowns upon cremation.
Crediting his uncle with getting him into heavy metal, the musician has his uncle’s remians repatriated, with a box of bones sent from Greece to the US. He eventually built the guitar, which he calls the “Filip Skelecaster”.
Prince Midnight, whose YouTube channel description says he is a “mallet percussionist from Taenarum, Greece” told Guitar World that he had to strum inside the rib cage, making it harder to play certain chords, but that it plays fine overall.
“I believe part of my uncle Filip is still there, literally and figuratively. Just a warm presence, maybe enjoying his next life as a totally metal guitar,” he said.
“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,” he added.