Canadian rock legend Randy Bachman's long search came to an end on Friday when he was reunited with a cherished guitar in Tokyo 45 years after it was stolen from a Toronto hotel.
"My girlfriend is right there," said 78-year-old Bachchan, a former member of The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, as the Greats guitar on which he wrote "American Woman" and other hits handed to him by a Japanese musician Was. Bought it in 2014 from a store in Tokyo without knowing its history.
He said all guitars are special, but the orange 1957 Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins he bought as a teenager was exceptional. He said he worked several jobs to save money to buy a $400 guitar, his first purchase of an expensive instrument.
"It made my whole life work. It was my hammer and a tool for writing songs, making music, and making money," Bachman told the Associated Press before the handover at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo.
When it was stolen from a Toronto hotel in 1977, “I cried for three days. It was part of me,” he said. “It was very, very disturbing.” He said that in unsuccessful attempts to replace it, he Bought about 300 guitars.
Bachchan frequently spoke about the guitar's missing in interviews and radio shows, and more recently on YouTube shows he performed with his son Taal.
In 2020, a Canadian fan who heard the guitar story began an Internet search and within two weeks successfully found it in Tokyo.
The fan, William Long, made use of a small spot in the wood grain of the guitar visible as a "digital fingerprint" in the old illustrations and tracked the instrument to a vintage guitar shop site in Tokyo. Another search led them to a YouTube video in December 2019 showing the instrument being played by a Japanese musician, Takeshi.
After receiving the news from Long, Bachchan immediately contacted Takeshi, and recognized the guitar in a video chat they had.
"I was crying," Bachchan said. "The guitar almost talked to me on the video, like, 'Hey, I'm coming home.'"
Takeshi agreed to give it to Bachchan in exchange for the very same. So Bachchan searched for the guitar's "sister" and found it - during the same week, with a close serial number, no modifications and no repairs.
"It was a miracle to find my guitar again, to find its twin sister was another miracle," Bachchan said.
Takeshi said that he decided to return the guitar because as a guitar player he could imagine how much Bachchan missed it.
“I owned it and played it for only eight years and now I am extremely sad to have it back. But he has been feeling sad for 46 years, and it is time for someone else to be sad,” said Takeshi Said. "I'm sorry for this legend."
He said he loved returning the guitar to its rightful owner, but it may take time for him to fall in love with his new Gretsch as much as the guitar itself.
“It’s a guitar, and it has a soul. So even though it has the same shape, I can’t say for sure whether I can love a replacement the same way I loved it,” he said "There is no doubt that Randy thought of me and searched hard (for a replacement), so I would gradually develop an affection for it, but that may take time."
Bachchan said that he and Takeshi are now like brothers who have "twin sisters" with guitars. They are participating in a documentary about guitars on which they plan to perform a song together, "Lost and Found".
She also sang several songs at Friday's Handover, including "American Woman."
Bachchan said that he would lock the guitar in his house so that he would never lose it again. "I'll never take it out of my house again," he said.
