Slash Returns Stolen Guitar to Hard Rock Cafe with Much Pomp and Circumstance

Officials at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas got quite the surprise during a recent ceremony honoring Velvet Revolver (and former Guns 'N Roses) guitarist Slash. At the event on July 14, Slash presented the Hard Rock with a guitar he had taken from its Florida cafe years ago explaining, "I stole that from the Hard Rock in Orlando. It was in the dressing room. I didn't know what it was doing there, so I took it. . . So I've had it all these years and been playing it." What prompted him to finally 'fess up? "I thought what better way to honor the Hard Rock for honoring me than to give it back, sort of," Slash said. Coming clean didn't affect why he was being honored in the first place - the permanent memorabilia case of all things Slash still stands at the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas.

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Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

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