“My production manager came into my bus. He’s like, ‘That white SG…’ It got stolen right off stage”: Daron Malakian on the time his prized Gibson was swiped from the stage – while System of a Down were headlining Ozzfest

Some guitar players have all the luck. Others less so, and System of a Down’s Daron Malakian has to be in the latter category – particularly when it comes to getting the electric guitars in his life stolen.

Malakian has a number of scare stories to share. In a recent Rig Rundown video with Premier Guitar, Malakian listed a number of much-loved six-strings that went walkabout.

“I’ve had a lot of guitars stolen from me,” he says, chronicling the victims. There were “a couple of Fenders” from the early days when SOAD were cutting their teeth in the club circuit. But it would get worse. His beloved Ibanez Iceman – arguably the guitar you would first associate with Malakian – got pinched, too.

“My first Iceman I ever had was a ’79 Iceman, and we were on tour with Fear Factory, and all of those guitars got stolen,” he says. That incident, if you recall, was a disaster for everyone.

It was January 23, 1998. Fear Factory were headlining, with System of a Down in support, plus Hed PE, Static-X and Spineshank. The truck containing all of Fear Factory’s gear, merch and production – plus SOAD and Spineshank’s gear – got stolen from a parking lot in Philadelphia. They found the truck all right, but it was on fire, their gear long gone. There was no option but to cancel the upcoming dates.

System of a Down's Daron Malakian Rig Rundown - YouTube

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The list of stolen gear, unfortunately, goes on for Malakian. There was also the time SOAD were headlining Ozzfest and his white Gibson SG was swiped directly from the stage.

“I think it might have been the year we were headlining the Ozzfest or something,” says Malakian. “We were the only band that headlined the Ozzfest [SOAD shared the headlining slot with Ozzy Osbourne in 2006]. But my production manager came into my bus. He’s like, ‘That white SG…’ and I’m sure people have seen me play this, with pictures of this white SG. Well, that white SG got stolen right off stage.

“And I was like, ‘How could this happen?’ And I get it in the club days, but now we’re, like, playing amphitheatres and we have all this security, and the venue security, and someone just walks out with my guitar. So I’ve lost a lot of guitars through the years.”

Malakian at least can take some comfort; he is not alone. He is not even the only Ozzfest headliner to have a white SG stolen from him. Speaking at the launch of his signature Gibson electric guitar pickups set, Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi recalled the time that not one but two of his white SGs got stolen.

“That was a really old one,” said Iommi. “Somebody stole it from the hotel. And then Gibson made another white one, and somebody stole that as well! I couldn’t believe it.”

Unlike Malakian, Iommi did track it down. “It turns out it was some producer who owned it, and he was trying to sell it,” said Iommi. “He contacted this memorabilia guy who I know, and he got in touch with me, [and] said, ‘We know where your guitar is.’”

A happy ending? Well, kind of. “I never ever got it back,” lamented Iommi. But Gibson made him one.