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Adam Yauch-Inked Beastie Boys Skateboard Up for Auction

Adam 'MCA' Yauch of the Beastie Boys

The late Beastie Boy Adam “MCA” Yauch’s affinity for skateboarding was widely documented, and now some of his final contributions to skate culture are going on the block for charity. As Rolling Stone reports, Yauch transcribed the lyrics from Ill Communication‘s “Bodhisattva Vow” on three different boards two months before his untimely death, signing and dating them “Adam Yauch March 15, 2012.” Famed skater Bucky Lasek asked Yauch to participate in the Tony Hawk Foundation-led fund-raising effort.

Yauch’s decks will go up for auction online on November 29. Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, and Ben Harper are also participating. McCartney wrote the lyrics to “Blackbird” on one of Hawk’s own used decks. On other pros’ old boards, Petty set down “I Won’t Back Down” while Harper did “God Fearing Man” and “Burn One Down.” The auction raises money for skateparks in low-income neighborhoods. Elton John is among other performers likely to contribute. Ollie down that yellow brick road?

Miki Vuckovich, executive director of the Hawk Foundation, told Rolling Stone that Harper, another avid skater, hadn’t known about Yauch’s late stage of cancer when he hooked the Beastie Boy up with skater Lasek. “If he did, he wouldn’t have asked,” Vuckovich is quoted as saying. “Understanding that Adam had been in treatment, he was careful to invite him to participate with no expectation that he would. But Adam responded immediately, and enthusiastically.” (As SPIN previously reported, Yauch’s will stipulates that his image and music can’t be used for advertising.) Money from Yauch’s boards in particular will go to benefit a skatepark to be named later in the rapper’s own New York City.