April Wine Frontman Gets 'Unbelievable' Message

His beloved Gibson guitar wasn't actually destroyed
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 5, 2019 3:46 PM CST
'Unbelievable': April Wine Frontman Finds His 'Lost Love'
Myles Goodwyn.   (Wikimedia Commons)

Myles Goodwyn loved that guitar—and then it was gone, for 46 years. The former April Wine frontman says he played his Gibson Melody Maker on songs like "You Could Have Been a Lady" and "Bad Side of the Moon" with the Canadian band in the early 1970s, per the CBC. Then he was told in 1972 that the band's truck had crashed and his beloved instrument, which had his name on the head, was ruined. "I wanted that guitar back," he tells the National Post. "I wanted the pieces to see if I could fix it, salvage it, but I kept getting the run-around." Told the Gibson had been tossed out with all the other demolished goods, "I had to accept that." The band went on to produce other hits like "Roller" and "I Wouldn't Want to Lose Your Love," but no guitar was the same.

Then Goodwyn, 70, got a Facebook message the day before Christmas 2018: "I know where your guitar is, your Melody Maker." He wrote back: "I know. In heaven!" The reply: "No. It's in Victoria, BC." Learning the owner had paid for the Gibson in 2005, Goodwyn bought it back and had it shipped to him in Nova Scotia, per the Cape Breton Post. "For this thing to come out of nowhere is unbelievable," he says. He plans to use it on an upcoming blues record, but still rues those 46 lost years: The guitar "was stolen from me, plain and simple," he writes on Facebook. "I was sad and I was pissed and all these years I thought she was gone forever." Anyone suspecting they have stolen goods should "find out if some someone is missing this item that they care for very, very much." (Fleetwood Mac's ex-guitarist says a "screaming phone call" got him fired.)

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