Moore was performing in Royal Oak, Mich., last Friday when someone walked away with his Gibson, valued at about $4,000.
Moore’s manager contacted the local police department while the singer jumped on Twitter and issued an all-points tweet. A deejay at Detroit country station WYCD helped spread the word.
On Sunday the thief had an anonymous friend deliver the instrument to the radio station.
“Everybody was probably having a good time,” Moore said. “And in an inebriated state he goes, ‘Hey, that’d be cool if we had Justin’s guitar.’ When you wake up the next morning with a splitting headache, and go, ‘Oh, crap. What did I do?’ Thank god he had that conscience.”
Moore thought the thief’s note of apology, which included a reference to one of his songs, was pretty funny.
“Everybody’s got drunk and made stupid mistakes,” Moore said. “Heck, I’ve got a song on my record, which he actually referenced, about making all kinds of idiotic mistakes. The thing I’ll say, though, is everybody don’t always own up to it and make it right.”
Moore also said if he ever met the fan/thief, he wouldn’t hold the theft against him.
“I’ll buy him a beer,” Moore said. “He knows he did wrong. There ain’t no sense in making somebody feel worse than they already do. You can’t kick someone when they’re down. He didn’t have to do the right thing and give it back, but the fact of the matter is that he did, and I’m all cool with him.”
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