Randy Bachman has performed many times on Canada Day, but the event he played this year is unlike any other.
The former Guess Who member and Bachman-Turner Overdrive flew to Japan to retrieve a guitar he had been hunting for decades.
“I’m very happy. I’m recovering my lost Gretsch guitar,” the 78-year-old rocker told CBC News in a meeting room at the Canadian embassy in Tokyo.
The guitar is a 1957 Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins, orange, which he bought at a Winnipeg music store when he was 19 years old.
Forty-five years after she was robbed in Toronto, he puts her back in her arms, and you can hardly believe it.
“If you never want to forget your birthday, you get married on your birthday. You never forget your wedding anniversary. I will never forget that day,” Bachman said.
Bachman, right, receives his Gretsch guitar stolen Friday at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo from Takeshi, a Japanese musician who had bought it at a store in Tokyo in 2014 without knowing its history. (Eugene Hoshiko / The Associated Press)
The Gretsch was his first big purchase when he was a young adult, and he played it on recordings of iconic tracks like Takin ‘Care of Business, American Woman, These Eyes and Undun. But when his BTO band arrived in Toronto in 1977, he was left in a locked hotel room, where he was somehow snatched away.
“It was terrible,” Bachman said an interview in 2021. “I literally cried all night … I really liked this guitar.”
Bachman launched his own search, which lasted decades and found nothing.
Japanese media reports suggest that the Gretsch was eventually taken to the U.S. border, where it was sold to a Japanese guitar dealer. Reports say Takeshi, a musician who writes for Japanese pop bands, bought it in 2014 at a guitar shop in Tokyo, without knowing its history.
Online research
Six years later, the Canadian rocker finally got a break in the case. A fan and internet detective from White Rock, BC, named William Long, heard Bachman’s story and decided to try to hunt down the instrument using facial recognition technology. He found it in a YouTube video where Takeshi played guitar.
He contacted Bachman, who contacted Takeshi. Then, plans were devised to change it again. The Canadian bought an almost identical Gretsch to exchange for its original.
Takeshi, left, and Bachman pose after changing guitars on Friday. (Chris Corday / CBC)
On Canada Day in Tokyo, the saga finally ended in front of a packed crowd at the embassy’s Oscar Peterson Theater.
Bachman and Takeshi first met on stage and, in an emotional moment for both of them, exchanged their vintage instruments, with the Japanese musician returning a piece of Canadian rock history.
“It was all worth it”
“A lot of emotions were going on today,” Takeshi said through a performer as he sat next to Bachman on stage.
“But when I saw your smile after seeing that guitar, I just thought it was worth it.”
Bachman smiles during an interview before reuniting with his lost guitar on Friday. (Eugene Hoshiko / The Associated Press)
Bachman said he also has mixed emotions. He said he got hooked on the guitar he exchanged with Takeshi, but that he is more than happy to be back home with his first love.
“Coming here to do the craft has been very emotional, and I am grateful that this honorable man has given me the opportunity to get my guitar back,” Bachman said.
‘Like a fairy tale’
The story of Bachman’s Lost Guitar was news around the world over the past year, in large part due to how unlikely it was ever to be found.
Winnipeg rock journalist John Einarson has written extensively about the Guess Who and other bands of the time, and said the odds of recovering this stolen Gretsch were “astronomical.”
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Music historian John Einarson explains why the 1957 Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins model guitar was so influential on the Canadian music scene.
“It’s really like a fairy tale, you know? And it’s a rock and roll coincidence that was discovered in Tokyo,” Einarson said.
“The guitar occupies an important place in the history of Winnipeg music because it is so iconic for Canadian music, Manitoba music and Winnipeg music. And also for Randy.”
At the Canada Day event, the two musicians played a set of Bachman hits and then separated.
Bachman said he will closely monitor his beloved instrument. He plans to play it once at a concert in Vancouver this year and then close it permanently at his home in Victoria, where he will join his collection of vintage Gretsch guitars.
To commemorate his unusual connection to Tokyo, Bachman also plans to release a new song called Lost and Found, co-written with his son Tal Bachman, with lyrics in Japanese.