“It was very emotional. He said, ‘This is where it belongs’”: Jon Bon Jovi has been reunited with the first guitar he ever owned, 45 years after he sold it

2024 was already the year of the guitar reunion, but now Jon Bon Jovi has a touching tale of his own: 45 years after selling the first guitar he ever owned for $100, he’s got it back. 

We’ve already seen “the most important bass guitar in history” returned to Paul McCartney and a guitarist reunited with his ‘81 Les Paul Custom almost 30 years after it was stolen. Now, the Livin’ On A Prayer legend has got in on the action.    

In 1978 – six years before the release of Bon Jovi's self-titled debut album – a young Jon Bon Jovi sold his first guitar, a Univox Stratocaster clone. It was sold with the budget cardboard case it came in to a “kid down the street… for $100, in the hope I could save enough money to buy a Fender.” 

Some 15 albums and four and a half decades later, the guitar is back in the singer’s hands. Incredibly, too, it was in the exact same state as it was when he parted ways with it all those years ago.  

“I didn't run into him [the guitar's buyer] for the next 45 years,” Bon Jovi told Howard Stern in a new interview. “But a volunteer at the Soul Kitchen [the singer's non-profit community restaurant in his New Jersey hometown] told me, ‘Not only does he still have it, but I think he'd be willing to give it back to you.’”

Bon Jovi says he gave the owner “some money” and a signed acoustic in return for the sentimental guitar.  

“I opened up that same cardboard case and there it was with five strings,” he said. “If memory serves me, the sixth string was broken [when I sold it to him], so I don't think the kid ever played it. 

“I picked it up and I wrote a song with it called My First Guitar – it was one of those songs that had to be on the new record.”

The ‘kid’ who bought the guitar remained in New Jersey and has since become a police officer. Of their meet-up, Bon Jovi reflects that “it was very emotional, it was very sweet of him. He said ‘This is where it belongs.’” 

Forever, the band’s 16th studio album, is set for a June 7 release via EMI Records, with My First Guitar the penultimate track of 12. 4-part documentary Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story is also available to stream on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK.