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Reunited and it feels so good.
Richie Sambora opened up about reuniting with his 1976 Gibson Explorer guitar 41 years after it was stolen in 1985, while Sambora was on tour with Bon Jovi.
The guitar, customized by the rocker with its ebony fretboard and signature stars, was located at a vintage guitar shop in Paris earlier this year.
"It was trippy," he told PEOPLE in an interview published on Wednesday (April 29). "I put it on, I started to play it. It seemed like it was untouched. It's almost in perfect shape."
The guitar is the same one the iconic band's guitarist used during their early days in the 1980s, when they were just rising to fame. Sambora explained that he purchased the guitar in New Jersey when he was 16, after being inspired by watching his hero, Eric Clapton, play.
"Clapton was a huge hero of mine," he revealed. "So I went to the store; they let me get it and pay it off. And throughout the years, I basically ripped it apart and made it for all the things that I was doing. It easily was the best guitar I owned, and the specs were mine."
The legendary guitarist is slated to perform with his beloved guitar for the first time in four decades on Friday (May 1), at the Unbridled Eve Derby Gala in Louisville, Ky., ahead of the Kentucky Derby.