Watch Rise Against’s Tim McIlrath strum ‘Swing Life Away’ on historic guitar

Rise Against frontman Tim McIlrath didn’t swing away his chance to play a historic guitar.

The Chicago punks recently visited the Martin Guitar Museum in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, which houses the very first Martin guitar ever made.

Upon being presented with the instrument, McIlrath sat down with it and started strumming the Rise Against song “Swing Life Away” while singing the first verse.

You can watch footage of the performance now via the Rise Against Facebook. 

Martin would later manufacture the 1959 D-18E that Kurt Cobain famously played during Nirvana‘s 1993 MTV Unplugged performance. That particular guitar sold for a record-breaking $6 million at auction in 2020.

Rise Against will launch a U.S. tour in March in support of their latest album, 2025’s Ricochet.