Back in March, it was reported that Zakk Wylde‘s Pelham Blue Bullseye Gibson LP Custom guitar was stolen out of the back of his tour bus during the Chicago stop on the Experience Hendrix trek. Now, there’s some good news to report, as the Black Label Society frontman’s prized axe has been recovered.

As the Chicago Tribune reports, the $10,000 guitar was sold for $50 to a Chicago pawn shop 10 days after it was stolen... But, the proprietors of the pawn shop had surprisingly 'forgotten' that local Police had issued all local pawn shop owners an alert about the theft.

The owners of the shop Royal Pawn, (which had been the subject of the reality show ‘Hardcore Pawn: Chicago’ ), stored the guitar for 30 days before bringing it to a local guitar shop for appraisal. It was there where they were told that the Gibson axe was Zakk Wylde’s stolen guitar.


“I forgot about [the alert],” said Royal Pawn shop owner Randy Cohen. “That happens every day. To be honest, I can’t remember [expletive].”

Police detectives recovered the guitar on Friday, May 2, and also retrieved information on the seller from the pawn shop. Wylde is currently on tour and the axe isn’t in his hands yet, but his manager Blasko tells the Chicago Tribune, “All I need to know is that it was found. That’s good news.” Meanwhile, Zakk thanked all the parties who helped recover the guitar in the tweet below:

"MASSIVE BL THANKS To MY BELOVED BL FAMILY and ALL THE ASS-KICKING PEOPLE INVOLVED IN BLUE-BALLS's RETURN HOME!"