call on November 9, from Pat Foley, director of
artist relations at Gibson Custom.
“First, he asked me if I still had the guitar here in
the United States, which seemed odd because
where else would I keep it?” Dahl said. “Then
he informed me the guitar had been stolen from
Mr. King at the beginning of the summer [2009].
Gibson presented to him as his 80th birthday
present in Los Angeles in 2005, and it had been
Mr. King’s main gigging guitar for the last four
years. He was so upset that it was stolen that he
asked Gibson to make him another one as close
to the original as possible.”
Needless to say, King was overjoyed when he
learned his beloved Lucille had been found. He
even arranged for Dahl to receive a brand new
Lucille from Gibson Custom upon returning
the original, which happened a few days after
Thanksgiving—an appropriate holiday for Mr.
King to celebrate the return of his beloved lady.
“We met at Mr. King’s offices here in Las
Vegas,” Dahl said. “He was one of the nicest
people I’ve ever met in my life. He just kept
shaking my hand and thanking me. He really
wanted his birthday present back and was
amazed he was actually getting it back. He
really thought he’d never see it again.”
Dahl got King to autograph his new Lucille from
Gibson Custom, and took a bunch of pictures of
the meeting—one of which will go back to King
as a memento of their unlikely encounter.
“I’m just happy that I was able to return a prized
guitar to one of my guitar idols and inspirations,”
Dahl said. “Now he can continue to give joy to
so many other blues fans around the world.”
Guitarists Come Together for Los
Angeles Youth
By Rebecca Dirks
Slash, Tom Morello, Ozzy Osborne and Dave
Navarro were among a few of the big names
that came out for Los Angeles Youth Network’s
LAYN Rocks event in Hollywood, CA on
November 22, 2009. The Los Angeles Youth
Network is a charity that helps keep LA’s homeless kids off the streets, in school and fed.
One of the highlights of the show was a Guns ‘n’
Roses alumni reunion with Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff
McKagan and Steven Adler. Other performers
included Wolfmother guitarist Andrew Stockdale,
Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, Billy Idol,
Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker and Linkin Park
frontman Chester Bennington. Justin K. Moreau,
founder of Fireplant guitars, said the show was,
“Probably the best concert I’ve ever seen.” The
performers held a private concert in the afternoon
prior to the event for the LAYN kids.
The event also included a silent auction to benefit LAYN. The top-dollar item was a prototype
guitar donated by Fireplant guitars. The FP- 1
prototype was autographed by all of the performers and sold almost immediately for $3000.
Moreau said that the company will continue
to donate 10% of any future guitar sales to
the charity when the buyer references LAYN.
The event ended up raising around $170,000
through ticket sales, a live auction and the
silent auction. An online auction continued
through December 15 on charitybuzz.com.
layn.org
fireplantguitars.com
