News

There's never a good time to have your guitar smashed by an airline, but as Toronto musician Kevin Fox found out, this summer is probably as good as it'll ever get.

And he has Halifax musician Dave Carroll to thank. Carroll, who plays in a band called Sons of Maxwell, won the attention of United Airlines and drew more than three million YouTube viewers this month after posting a video of a song about his damaged guitar and the airline's handling of the situation.

The song – called United Song #1 – features lines such as “United breaks guitars” and “you broke it, you should fix it,” and is meant as the first of a three-part series. He hopes the trilogy ends with a song about his new guitar, provided by the airline.

As Carroll flitted from interview to interview to answer questions about the song and his $3,500 Taylor acoustic guitar – CNN's Wolf Blitzer even picked up the story –Fox realized he had just been given some leverage in his conflict with Sunwing Airlines. He had flown to St. John's for a solo show in June – he also plays with Chantal Kreviazuk and Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace – and found his $2,000 Simon & Patrick acoustic guitar had been destroyed en route. He and his wife, Tammy, began an e-mail exchange with the airline but weren't optimistic of a settlement.

That is, at least, until Tammy sent the airline a link to Carroll's video: The next day, she received a message thanking her for the link and informing her that the airline would pick up the costs.

“I really do owe those guys a thank you of some sort,” Fox said. “I have to think the United story helped convince them to do the right thing.”