Everybody's got a hungry heart, but two lucky auction winners apparently were starvin' on Wednesday night. The bidders forked over $300,000 each at a Stand Up for Heroes auction in exchange for a guitar lesson with Bruce Springsteen, a ride in the sidecar of his motorcycle and a lasagna dinner at his house, reported the Associated Press.
It's an unusual trifecta of delights, but the original offer was just for The Boss's electric guitar — and as Rolling Stone noted, that didn't get bidding higher than $60,000. So Springsteen added on the lesson, which led the auction to the $250,000 mark. Next up: Dinner at his digs. No movement.
Finally he agreed to be the winner's personal chauffeur, and that did the trick.
Springsteen ended up giving away two full packages, making for a total auction donation of $600,000. He also played an acoustic solo set of five songs — including "Dancing in the Dark" and "Born in the U.S.A." — for the audience, which was made up of members of the military, fans and executives at the Theater at Madison Square Garden.
The annual event, now in its eighth year, is held during New York's Comedy Festival and is in support of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, which lends a hand to returning members of the armed services and their families.
John Oliver, Jon Stewart, Louis C.K. and Jim Gaffigan all donated their time and jokes to the night, each doing a short set. The even raised over $1 million. Stand Up has taken in over $6 million in total in 2014.