A long search for Canadian rock legend Randy Bachmann ended on Friday when he was reunited with his beloved guitar in Tokyo, 45 years after it was stolen from a Toronto hotel.
“My girlfriend is there,” said Bachman, 78, a former member of The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, as a Japanese musician handed him the Gretsch guitar on which he wrote “American Woman” and other hits. I bought it in a store in Tokyo in 2014 without knowing its history.
All guitars are special, he said, but the orange 1957 Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins, which he bought as a teenager, was special. He worked several jobs to save money and buy a $400 guitar, his first purchase of an expensive instrument, he said.
“It marked my whole life. It was my hammer and instrument for writing songs, making music and making money,” Bachmann told The Associated Press ahead of the performance at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo.
When he was robbed of a Toronto hotel in 1977, “I cried for three days. It was a part of me,” he said. “It was very, very upsetting.” He bought about 300 guitars in failed attempts to replace them, he said.
Bachmann has often talked about the missing guitar in interviews and radio shows, most recently on a YouTube show where he appeared with his son, Tal.
In 2020, a Canadian fan who heard about the guitar started searching the internet and successfully located it in Tokyo within two weeks.
Fan William Long used a small dot on the guitar’s wood grain that was visible in old photographs as a “fingerprint” and located the instrument at an antique guitar shop in Tokyo. Additional research led him to a YouTube video of the instrument being played by Japanese musician Takeshi in December 2019.
After receiving the news from Long, Bachmann immediately contacted Takeshi and identified the guitar in a video chat.
“I was crying,” Bachman said. “The guitar almost spoke to me in the video, like, ‘Hey, I’m coming home.’
Takeshi agreed to give it to him in exchange for Bachman, who looked a lot like him. So Bachman searched and found a “sister” guitar, made the same week, with a close serial number, with no modifications or repairs.
“Finding my guitar again was a miracle, finding her twin was another miracle,” said Bachmann.
Takeshi said he decided to return the guitar because, as a guitarist, he could imagine how much he missed Bachmann.
“I’ve only had and played for eight years and I’m sorry I have to come back now. But he’s been sad for 46 years and it’s time for someone else to be sad,” Takeshi said. “I’m sorry about this legend.”
He said he felt good after returning the guitar to its rightful owner, but it might take a while for him to fall in love with his new Grech as much as he does this one.
“It’s a guitar and it has soul. So if it’s the same shape, I can’t say for sure if I can love the replacement as much as I loved this one,” he said. “There is no doubt that Randy is thinking about me and looking hard for (a replacement) so I will gradually develop a love for him, but it may take time.”
Bachmann said she and Takeshi are now like brothers with guitars who are “twin sisters”. They are participating in a documentary about the guitar, in which they intend to perform together the song “Lost and Found”.
They also performed several songs on Friday’s show, including “American Woman”.
Bachmann said he would lock the guitar in his house so he would never lose it again. “I will never take him out of my house again,” he said.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
