“WHEN THAT GUITAR WAS STOLEN, MY MAGIC FEATHER WAS GONE”
RANDY BACHMAN SHUFFLED across a Tokyo concert stage and quietly embraced his long-lost girlfriend for the first time in 46 years. It was a quiet, somewhat awkward moment, and the aging Canadian rocker, perhaps overcome by emotion, said little. He was finally holding his hit-making Gretsch guitar, an instrument he’d once compared to a lover. After decades of fruitless searching, the guitar had been located and would at last be going home.
Bachman’s July 1 reunion with his Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins model brought one of the guitar world’s greatest mysteries to an end. In 1976, the guitarist was on top of the world. His band Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO) had topped the U.S. and Canadian charts the year before with and followed it up
