Toronto musician raises money for B.C. flood victims with signed guitar

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Greg Godovitz, of ‘70s Toronto power rock trio Goddo, couldn’t just watch the devastating images of B.C. towns and cities affected by the recent flooding, he had to do something about it.

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“I watched about six hours of coverage on the news,” said Godovitz. “And I just thought, ‘This is incredibly bad what’s going on.’”

So the 70-year-old musician went down to his basement and retrieved a Fender acoustic guitar that he had gotten signed while visiting Ronnie Hawkins about three years ago. Kris Kristofferson and Gordon Lightfoot were also there and signed it, too.

Godovitz was going to auction off the guitar to a children’s music school in the Dominican Republic but decided instead to get more signatures and raise money to help those affected by the B.C. floods.

He’s since gotten signatures on the guitar’s body from David Clayton Thomas, (Larry) Gowan, Gil Moore, Mike Levine and Rik Emmett of Triumph, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush, Kim Mitchell, Carole Pope and Bif Naked (who will sign it Tuesday) to name a few.

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“It is a Fender, so it’s a brand name guitar, but it’s not expensive, although it is now — now it’s the most expensive Fender guitar ever made,” said Godovitz.

“I seriously mean this: I didn’t expect this.”

Godovitz contacted GlobalMedic.ca (to which you can also just make a donation), which has set up a charitable fundraising campaign for the BC flood victims, and the Fender will go up for auction on Dec. 11 at noon ET.

The first bid was $2,000 and it currently sits at $7,800 but Godovitz expects it to eventually fetch “in the $20,000s.”

“I have a feeling towards the end of it, there’s going to be a couple of very generous, deep-pocketed souls that are going to bid a whole lot of money on it,” he said.

If you want to contribute a signature or make a bid, write Greg at [email protected] or message him on Facebook.

In the meantime, Godovitz has reached out to Paul Dean from B.C. band Loverboy.

“What are you guys doing to do?” he said. “Have a concert. Raise some money.”