Damien Rice splashes half a million on Bono’s old guitar

Despite looking like a hobo these days, Damien Rice has proved that he’s still raking in the dough by splashing an alleged half a million dollars on a guitar formerly owned by everybody’s favourite frontman Bono.

The singer splashed his cash for a good cause though. The Irish Independent reports that Rice bought the guitar at a charity auction in Los Angeles to help raise money for Haiti, which is still struggling to get back on its feet after devastating earthquakes.

Damien Rice scooped the guitar, despite a host of super-rich A-listers also being in attendance at the event. Clearly Leonardo Di Caprio, Selma Hayek and Demi Moore weren’t interested in grabbing a piece of expensive U2 memorabilia – can we blame them, really? Half a million on a guitar that Bono touched? We know it’s for a good cause but still...

A blog from the New York Times last night reported that the guitar was sold for nearly half a million dollars but this could not be confirmed and dear old Damien couldn’t be reached to comment on the buy.

The singer performed at the gala dinner organised by Cinema for Peace on Saturday night, which was in aid of the J/P Haitian Relief organisation.

Rice is expected to have enjoyed a Christmas bonus after X-Factor winners Little Mix reached the top of the charts with a cover version of his song ‘Cannonball.’ It was reported that he stood to make hundreds of thousands of euro in royalties from it.

“Some people asking about ‘Cannonball.’ Once a song is released, anyone can record/release a version without approval, upon certain condition,” Rice wrote in a blog post, responding to fans asking about the Little Mix cover.

The event for Haiti raised $5 million. Now, maybe with his leftover money Damien will do us all a favour and get a haircut.