The son of guitar great Les Paul says he was left ‘heartbroken’ after his father’s historic New Jersey home was suddenly demolished without his family being given the chance to say goodbye.
Gene Paul, 82, said he felt physically sick when he saw the gutted remains of the Mahwah property where his father spent decades experimenting with guitars, electronics and recording technology.
The sprawling Deerhaven Road home was both a workshop and laboratory where the musical pioneer helped revolutionize modern recording.
Gene says it wasn’t simply where the electric guitar icon lived but where history was made.
‘A few days ago, I saw my father’s home – our family home – gutted,’ Gene wrote in an emotional Facebook statement earlier this week.
‘It made me sick. I loved my father very much, and seeing that house disappear brought back a lifetime of memories and left me with a lot of questions that no one ever thought to ask me.’
Gene said neither he nor other members of the family were warned that the property was about to be torn down after it was sold over the summer by the Les Paul Foundation – run by the musician’s former manager – which controlled the house as well as its belongings, Gene told Patch.
He believed the family would be notified if the house was ever sold, in hopes they could honor their dad with a memorial on the property.
‘I’m not an attorney. I’m a son,’ he wrote. ‘And right now, I’m a heartbroken son.’
Les Paul’s longtime home on Deerhaven Road in Mahwah, New Jersey, where the music pioneer maintained a workshop, laboratory and recording studio, has now been demolished
Les Paul became one of the most influential figures in modern music, pioneering the solid-body electric guitar and groundbreaking multitrack recording techniques
Les Paul’s son Gene Paul, 82, said he was left ‘heartbroken’ after learning his father’s historic Mahwah home had been demolished without the family being given a chance to say goodbye
Les, who died in 2009 aged 94, was one of the most influential figures in the history of popular music.
The guitarist helped pioneer the solid-body electric guitar that bears his name and transformed studio production through his groundbreaking work with multitrack recording.
He remains the only person inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
And much of that extraordinary innovation happened inside the now-demolished Mahwah property.
‘That house wasn’t just where Les Paul lived,’ Gene said. ‘It was his workshop. It was his laboratory. It was his journey of dreams. So much happened there.’
His father experimented relentlessly with guitars and electronics inside its walls, Gene said, while the first eight-track multitrack recorder that helped transform the way music was produced was put to work there.
‘It was a place where ideas were tried, rejected, rebuilt and tried again,’ Gene wrote. ‘It was also our home.’
Paul moved into the mansion in 1952 and filled it with recording equipment and inventions.
Gene Paul, left, with his legendary father Les Paul, who turned their New Jersey family home into a laboratory for experiments that helped transform modern music and recording
Gene, a drummer who later became a recording engineer for Atlantic Records, moved there as a teenager after dropping out of high school.
He said his father’s home effectively became his classroom.
‘It was marvelous because I didn’t know I was getting trained, and I loved it,’ he told Patch.
‘Dad would say, ‘Go hook up this equipment.’ I learned a craft without knowing I was learning it. It was a delicious way to ‘go to college.’
At the time, Gene did not fully appreciate just how extraordinary his upbringing was.
‘I thought every dad made his own guitar, had his own eight-track recorder, and went out and made hit records,’ he said. ‘Later, I realized I had a special dad.’
The property also became a magnet for some of music’s greatest names, with family friends saying guitar gods including Jimmy Page and Eddie Van Halen visited Paul there.
The property was listed in April and sold in July for $990,000. The listing described a structure of more than 6,300 square feet that could be renovated or replaced with a buyer’s ‘dream home.’
Gene said his family understood the deteriorating property might eventually have to be demolished but he is upset he was not given an opportunity to commemorate it first.
Les Paul played at the Iridium Jazz Club in Manhattan every Monday night until his death in 2009 at the age of 94
Les Paul’s innovations extended far beyond the famous guitar bearing his name, with his experiments in recording technology helping revolutionize how modern music was produced. Paul is pictured in 1977
‘If everyone knew that the house eventually had to come down, why wasn’t there some effort to honor it before it did?’ he asked. ‘Why wasn’t our family told? Why wasn’t I asked?’
Gene said he wished relatives had been allowed to walk through the home one final time, identify possessions carrying personal significance and simply say farewell.
He also questioned why the building was not comprehensively photographed and filmed before demolition to create a permanent historical record.
According to Gene, people close to his father scrambled to rescue belongings as bulldozers approached, including handwritten notes and experiments from Paul’s echo chamber and reverb room.
He said one person recovered the Coors jacket his father wore in a famous television commercial, but found it damaged by water and covered in mold and mildew.
The same person, Gene claimed, personally dismantled four workbenches from Paul’s basement laboratory and workshop, with one eventually given to Gibson in Nashville.
‘These things mattered to my father,’ Gene said. ‘And they matter to me.’
He also wants to know what will happen to the reported $990,000 generated by the property’s sale and whether any consideration was given to Paul’s surviving family.
‘I honestly don’t know, because nobody talked to us about it,’ he wrote.
The Les Paul Foundation, which Gene says has controlled the property and his father’s belongings since the musician’s death 17 years ago, has strongly pushed back against suggestions that Paul’s history was simply discarded.
In a statement, the organization said it shared the ‘sadness’ surrounding the demolition but insisted historically important material had been carefully preserved.
Les Paul is photographed with his guitar as leader of the Les Paul Trio, heard over CBS Radio. Pictured in October 1941
Les Paul and second wife Mary Ford became major recording stars in the 1950s, scoring a string of hits while showcasing Paul’s pioneering recording techniques
‘Before the home was cleared, artifacts, personal belongings, historically significant materials, documents, paperwork, and other items connected to Les’s life and work were removed and preserved,’ the Foundation said.
It described the operation as ‘a true and painstakingly thorough effort,’ saying even the walls of Paul’s home studio had been removed and placed safely into storage.
The Foundation also said Paul’s late son Rusty, who died in 2016, had been involved in packing and preserving material from the house.
‘While the loss of the Mahwah home is deeply emotional, Les Paul’s legacy was never confined to one building,’ its statement continued.
‘It lives in his music, inventions, recordings, instruments, archives, and the countless artists and listeners he inspired.’
The Foundation also noted that the property sits in a residential neighborhood where zoning and traffic restrictions would have prevented the house from becoming a public exhibition.
It also said that attempts had been made to contact Gene in recent weeks without receiving a response.
‘We’ve been polite,’ he told Patch. ‘We’ve waited 17 years [to speak out]. When the house came down, I felt a pain I’d never felt before. It was the ultimate F-you. I can’t sit here and let it go by.’
Les Paul, pictured later in life, died in 2009 aged 94 after a remarkable career that earned him places in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and National Inventors Hall of Fame. Seen in 2008
Gene says he wants a historical marker telling future generations that behind those doors lived a man whose inventions fundamentally changed how musicians played and recorded their work.
‘Where is something that says: This is where Les Paul dreamed. This is where he experimented. This is where history happened,’ Gene asked.
‘I’m not asking these questions because I want a fight. I wish somebody had thought to ask his family,’ Gene wrote. ‘Nobody asked me.’
‘I think my father’s family, his friends, his fans and everyone whose life has been touched by his work deserve some answers.’
