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In early January iconic ZZ Top singer / guitarist Billy Gibbon appeared on an episode of The price of history, where he spent thousands of dollars on a colorful sequined designer suit, which he himself wore to one of his performances in the 1970s. “The rhinestones are in perfect condition,” said the owner of the garment, who asked $ 25,000 for her.
The Pawn Shop Owner Gold & Silver Pawn Shop from Las Vegas, Rick HarrisonHe scrutinized the blazer and pants. And it offered a succinct history lesson on Hollywood’s Nudie’s Rodeo Tailors brand, which dressed up many rock, country, and blues artists of those years. “If you were in the (music) industry back then, you were nothing unless you had a Nudie suit,” he told the young woman.
As is customary in the show, Rick summoned an expert to help him appraise the object. But this time, one nobody expected came through the door: Gibbons himself, with his unmistakable shaggy beard, dayshaloo hat and cap. The expression of the owner of the suit, rehearsed or not, was one of total amazement.
The musician quickly recognized the garment that he wore almost five decades ago and that it was in perfect condition. “We became clients of Nudie in 1972. Those costumes appear on the cover of the album Fandango! by ZZ Top. So we’ve had a long history with sparkling rhinestone suits, ”explained the author of classics like La Grange and Sharp Dressed Man.
Gibbons He assured that he had not seen the clothes since 1972 and that he “lost” them on an airplane flight. Eventually he and Rick agree to pay $ 20,000 each, and donate the suit to the Antone Blues Museum in Austin, Texas.
These types of surprises are very common in the highest-rated television program of History Channel, which began in 2009 and has already been 18 seasons. In its almost 600 chapters, a guitar played by Jimi Hendrix has been offered for US $ 1 million and a George Washington suit for US $ 3 million, which Rick did not buy because both objects were out of his budget. The protagonists of The Price of History have also fired a war tank and traveled to London to the studios where part of Star Wars was filmed, where they were offered the prop blaster that Harrison Ford used as the character. by Han Solo for $ 1 million.
With increasingly innovative episodes, the reality show has become one of the highest-grossing shows of all time. And it has made its protagonist, Rick Harrison, a popular star of TV -and especially YouTube- with followers on all continents.
“I never ever imagined that we were going to be in 150 countries and translated into 38 languages. I was everywhere, people recognize me in India, Malaysia, the Philippines or Argentina ”, Rick said a few days ago during a virtual press conference for Latin America.
The heir
Rick’s father, Richard Benjamin Harrison, died in June 2018 and with his departure, his son assumed the leading role in a series in which “The Old Man” stood out for his laconic phrases and his mock moodiness.
“The Old Man” founded the pawn shop with his son in 1988 in the city of gambling and sin, but he never thought he would become so famous thanks to the small screen. Today its stars are the new head of the clan, his son Corey Harrison and his employee (rather a friend) Chumlee, who popularized the expression “I don’t know Rick, it seems fake”When referring to certain objects that arrive at the store. It is precisely this phrase that has helped to make the program more popular, being the subject of an infinity of memes that circulate on the networks.
According to Nicki Swift, a popular American portal, Rick accumulates a net worth of US $ 8 million. Other sites say his fortune has grown to $ 10 million, the product of a string of successful deals and the popularity of the show. Although his taste for expensive cars and some luxuries can be seen in each season, according to an interview he gave to Forbes magazine in 2013, he does not make great claims when it comes to material matters: “I grew up as a very sick child. My father was a military man (in the Navy) and I had to work with my mother. Being middle class in the ’70s meant that we only had one television. And that television was not in your room. So, at age 8, I started to develop a passion for history and it never stopped. “
But in another interview with Fox News in 2019, he admitted that his life had nothing to do with his origins anymore: “People told me that nobody wanted to see a show about four fat men in a pawn shop. But suddenly we hit the screen and, without realizing it, we had the highest-rated premiere in the entire history of History”.
Shading it
In a report on the program published in October 2020 by El Mundo de España, it is noted that although Rick is at the head of the television show, there is someone who is overshadowing him.
Is about Chumlee (his real name is Austin Russell), who could become the pawnshop’s richest member of the pawnshop because of the investments he has made with his money. For example, in June 2017, he and his brother opened a candy store in Nevada.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Rick makes $ 15,000 per episode, while Chumlee receives $ 10,000. Not bad, to be – at least in the eyes of millions of viewers – a “simple employee.” Still, the Harrisons continue to make more money per season than Chumlee, because Rick concentrates a large part of the pawnshop’s shares and his son Corey owns about 5% of them.
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