Reunited with a stolen guitar loved by Canadian rock star Randy Bachman

Tokyo — Long Friday, 45 years after Canadian rock legend Randy Bachman was stolen from a hotel in Toronto, he reunited with his precious guitar. The search is over.

"My girlfriend is right there," said Backman, 78, a former member of The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive. He spoke as Gretsch's guitar, who wrote "American Woman." Other hits were handed over by a Japanese musician who bought them at a store in Tokyo in 2014 without knowing their history.

He said all the guitars were special, but the orange 1957 Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins he bought as a teenager was extraordinary. He said he engaged in multiple jobs to save money on buying a $ 400 guitar, which was the first time he bought an expensive instrument.

"It made my life. It was my hammer, a tool for writing songs, making music, and making money," said Tokyo. Before being handed over at the Canadian Embassy, ​​Buckman told The Associated Press.

When stolen from a hotel in Toronto in 1977, he said, "I cried for three days. It was part of me." "It was very, very upset," he said, with the failure of an attempt to replace it to buy about 300 guitars.

Buckman frequently talked about the missing guitar in interviews and radio shows, and more recently in a YouTube program he played with his son Tal. ..

In 2020, a Canadian fan who heard about the guitar started searching the internet and succeeded in searching in Tokyo within two weeks.

Fan William Long used the small wood-grained spots on the guitar in old images as "digital fingerprints" to track the instrument to a vintage guitar shop site in Tokyo. A further search found a YouTube video showing the instrument being played by Japanese musician TAKESHI in December 2019.

After receiving the news from Long, Buckman immediately contacted TAKESHI and recognized the guitar in the video. The chat they had.

"I was crying," Buckman said. "The guitar almost talked to me in the video, like,'Hey, I'm going home.'

TAKESHI agreed to give it to Buckman in exchange for something very similar. There, Buckman searched for and found the "sisters" of the guitar. Manufactured the same week, it has a close serial number and has not been changed or repaired.

"Finding my guitar again was a miracle, and finding its twin sisters was another miracle," Buckman said.

As a guitar player, TAKESHI said he decided to return the guitar because he could imagine how much Buckman missed the guitar.

"I owned it and played it for only 8 years So it's very sad to return it now, but he's been sad for 46 years and it's time for someone else to be sad, "TAKESHI said. "I'm sorry for this legend."

He said he felt good after returning the guitar to a legitimate owner, but he gave it a new Gretsch. It may take some time to love as much.

"It's a guitar and it has a soul, so it's unclear if you can love a replacement in the same way, even if it's the same shape." "I'm sure Randy thought about me and searched hard (for a replacement), so I'll gradually develop my affection, but it may take some time."

Buckman said he and TAKESHI are like brothers who own a guitar that is a "twin sister." They participate in a documentary about the guitar that they plan to play the song "Lostand Found" together.

They also played several songs, including "American Woman", on Friday's delivery.

Buckman said he would lock his guitar in his home so he would never lose it. "I will never take it out of my house," he said.