Jim Irsay loved pop culture and tied it to philanthropic gestures big and small

At 2023’s edition of the Farm Aid concert that supports non-corporate agriculture, Jim Irsay found himself out of his element but also right at home.

Seated and wearing a jacket and tie on the Ruoff Music Center stage, the owner of the Indianapolis Colts sang Warren Zevon tune “Lawyers, Guns and Money” while backed by an all-star band. Before grasping his rock ’n’ roll dream, Irsay presented a $1 million check to the Farm Aid cause.

John Mellencamp—a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer from Seymour, Indiana, and a Farm Aid co-founder—accepted the donation.

“I know a lot of you people think what Jimmy does is run a football team,” Mellencamp told the crowd of more than 22,000. “But he does so much good for this community.”

During 2022’s edition of Irsay’s Colts Kickoff Concert at Lucas Oil Stadium, Irsay announced donations to two Indianapolis hospitals: $500,000 to the Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital and $500,000 to Riley Hospital for Children.

Irsay, who died Wednesday at age 65, rubbed shoulders with Mellencamp, Woodstock-era icon Stephen Stills and the late counterculture journalist Hunter S. Thompson.

The Colts owner built an elite collection of guitars from music history, beginning with the “Tiger” guitar made for Grateful Dead vocalist-guitarist Jerry Garcia. In 2002, Irsay paid $957,000 for the instrument at a Guernsey’s auction.

In 2022, Irsay helped organize an auction in which Kurt Cobain’s family sold the Nirvana vocalist-guitarist’s memorabilia and a portion of the proceeds benefited Kicking the Stigma—the Colts’ mental health awareness campaign.

In the end, Irsay purchased Cobain’s blue Fender Mustang electric guitar seen in Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” music video for $4.5 million. An overview of historic items amassed by Irsay is available at jimirsaycollection.com.

Irsay found ways to connect his love of pop culture to philanthropy, but not every gesture needed to be grand.

He sent guitars previously owned by Prince and George Harrison to Fountain Square for display during Tonic Ball, a grassroots fundraiser for food-rescue nonprofit Second Helpings.

Ongoing exhibits at Indiana University’s Bloomington campus and Seattle’s Museum of Popular Culture feature items on loan from the Jim Irsay Collection.

Historic guitars, including an 1850s C.F. Martin & Co. model and a 1939 Rickenbacker Silver Hawaiian lap steel model, are displayed as part of “Amped at IU” at the McCalla School building that’s home to IU Collections.

An exhibit titled “Never Turn Back: Echoes of African American Music” opened last week in Seattle. Irsay loaned a red sequined cape James Brown wore onstage, an alto saxophone John Coltrane played onstage during a 1966 tour of Japan and a trumpet Miles Davis played on Grammy Award-winning recordings in the 1980s.

Although Irsay was a caretaker of artifacts from bygone eras, he enlisted modern greats to play in the Jim Irsay Band. The roster included R.E.M.’s Mike Mills on bass, Kenny Wayne Shepherd on guitar and Kenny Aronoff on drums.

During a 2022 interview, Aronoff told IBJ that Irsay cared as much about music as he cared about football.

“He’s listening to music 24/7,” Aronoff said. “It’s not a hobby. It really touches him, and he relates to the spirit and the lyrics of what these musicians have done.”