Murphy & Co.A NOTE FROM JOE MURPHY
Watch Sturgill Simpson and his band play Call to Arms on Saturday Night Live. Look for the white Gretsch in Laur Joamets’s hands. That’s Sugar Baby.
It was January 14, 2017, and they made very good use of their few minutes on television. Years later, people are still passing that performance around. Give it the whole song. You’ll understand.
Before that night, Sturgill had used Sugar Baby himself to record Sugar Daddy, the theme for HBO’s Vinyl. With Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger among the show’s executive producers, the music had some fairly serious company to keep. Sturgill delivered a dirty blues song that suited the job beautifully. He played the electric guitar as well as singing it.
Sturgill has a way of making country, soul and rock sound like they belonged together all along. A guitar this unusual seems right at home in his company.
The shape goes back to Bo Diddley, who designed the original Jupiter Thunderbird in 1959. Years later, he and Billy Gibbons worked with Gretsch on the version that became the Billy-Bo. That explains the name and a body shape you’re unlikely to mistake for anything else.
The paperwork is refreshingly direct. In a signed letter dated March 2, 2016, Sturgill identifies this guitar by serial number and says he used it to record the Vinyl theme. He also describes it as one of only 15 made in white. There’s a photograph of him holding it at Carter Vintage Guitars.
For what we’re building at Murphy & Co., this is about as close to the perfect fit as it gets. You can sit with the guitar, read Sturgill’s letter, then pull up the music and hear what he made with it. That’s what I mean by Stories & Strings.
Sources and evidence.
Collection identity: white Gretsch Billy-Bo Jupiter, serial JT11062598. The dossier reproduces a signed statement dated March 2, 2016 identifying that serial and attributing Vinyl theme recording use to Simpson. The white-edition quantity is the statement’s claim. The SNL identification follows the collection’s supplied performance frame: Laur Joamets holds the white Gretsch; Simpson uses a different guitar. Physical serial and ownership paperwork still need matching.
- Official SNL episode — January 14, 2017
Episode context; regional or subscription access may apply. This listing does not establish this guitar’s serial.
Source edition: Sugar Baby, October 22, 2026, Appendices A–C: signed statement, Carter photograph and NBC performance frame. Public facsimiles await permission and privacy review; the statement and performance are distinct evidence.
The record behind the story.
- Identity
- White Gretsch Billy-Bo Jupiter, serial JT11062598.
- Artist statement
- A signed March 2, 2016 statement on Carter Vintage stationery identifies the serial and says Simpson used it to record the theme for HBO’s Vinyl.
- Performance context
- The dossier identifies Laur Joamets playing the white Billy-Bo during Call to Arms on SNL, January 14, 2017; Simpson is at the microphone with a different guitar.
- Edition claim
- The quantity of 15 white examples is attributed to Simpson’s statement.
The signed statement, serial number and accompanying photograph form the source record. Matching this record to the physical instrument remains part of the provenance review.
From the Murphy & Co. collection journal · October 22, 2026. Provenance statements and open questions are distinguished in the record above.