“We opened the case, and I gave him the guitar”: Richie Sambora reunited with stolen Gibson Explorer after 40 years

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that, if you’re a touring guitarist, you’re bound to get one or more of your guitars stolen at some point. These tools of their trade end up disappearing into the ether, never to be seen again, with their owners still mourning their loss decades later.

In Richie Sambora’s case, his decades-long career means he has boundless guitar anecdotes – including ones of the robbery kind. But now, one of his early-year guitars, an original 1976 Gibson Explorer, has finally been tracked down.

The Explorer was his main squeeze in those early Bon Jovi days, and the first “real” guitar he bought in his late teens. Sambora spent around three years customizing and modding it – including fitting it with a Floyd Rose – putting everything he had into the guitar, or as he aptly puts it, “All the bread he had at the time.”

The Explorer was stolen from a warehouse in 1985, when Bon Jovi were touring overseas, and couldn't be tracked down – until now.

Matthieu Lucas, from Paris’ vintage and artist guitar emporium, Matt's Guitar Shop, was going about his usual business – buying and selling high-value guitars – when he came across one that suspiciously looked like Sambora's long-lost Gibson.

“I bought this guitar from somebody who said he was from Michigan and sold it as Richie’s original Explorer,” Lucas tells Guitar World.

“It’s the first time I have been offered such a Bon Jovi guitar as [typically], the early Bon Jovi guitars never come up for sale,” he goes on to explain. “We agreed on a price, and I bought the guitar. When I opened the case, I forwarded a few photos to my friend Richie [Sambora] and his guitar tech extraordinaire, Takumi, to see if they had more info.

“What I learned then was that it was stolen, and I immediately called Richie’s team to give Richie his sword back.”

A few weeks later, Lucas and his team flew to New Jersey, Explorer in hand, to give it back to its rightful owner.

“We opened the case, and I gave him the guitar. He grabbed the neck and said, ‘Oh yes, that's mine!’ I had to make it right and make sure Richie got this guitar back.” In fact, Lucas can exclusively reveal that, “It will be the first guitar he will use on stage when he gets back to it.

“Richie played everything on this guitar and composed the majority of Bon Jovi’s hit songs on it, so I am so glad he got it back now,” he concludes.

Last year, Sambora shared that he was recovering from a “gruesome” injury that has delayed his return to the stage.