That’s a bold strategy, Cotton.
I don’t know what it is about being drunk that suddenly turns people into kleptomaniacs, but for some reason after a few drinks some people (who are normally law-abiding citizens) decide to swipe anything that’s not bolted to the ground – like street signs, traffic cones, or those big metal crosswalk poles from the sidewalk.
Well back a few years ago, apparently one drunk fan at a Justin Moore concert decided he wanted a little more than a ticket stub and some grainy cell phone videos to remember the concert by. So he swiped Justin’s acoustic guitar off the stage after the show.
The show was at the Royal Oaks Music Theater in Michigan back in 2010, and after the show Justin posted on Twitter asking for the guitar to be returned:
Well thanks to some help from a local Michigan DJ who posted about the guitar theft on his website, the drunk thief decided to do the right thing and delivered the guitar to the radio station.
But according to Justin, the guitar wasn’t the only thing in the case: On this week’s episode of The Justin Moore Podcast, Justin revealed that the guy also tried to pitch him a song.
“We got my guitar back. And the man who had stolen it, he wrote me a note that was in the guitar case when I got it back that said ‘It sure plays nice.’
And he pitched me a song. He goes ‘It’d sound great with you playing this song on it.'”
That’s fuckin’ ballsy right there.
The anonymous thief also referenced one of Justin’s song in his apology note:
“Look, man, I (messed) up major, man. It was a drunken mistake. I love your music so much!! God will get me for what I have done. Well, hope to see you in MI soon.
But I would like to deeply and sincerely apologize for what I’ve done. Like your wonderful song, ‘How I Got To Be This Way,’ we all make mistakes.
I’m going out and buying 50 of your CDs today. I hope and pray you have a wonderful long career.
I’m sure you got some yelling and punching of me to do.”
But Justin’s a good dude, so rather than yelling and punching, he decided to forgive the guy – and even offered to buy him a beer.
“Everybody’s got drunk and made stupid mistakes. 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…
I’ll buy him a beer. 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.”
All’s well that ends well I guess.
After all these years Justin’s able to have a good laugh about it, and he also revealed on the podcast that he still plays that same guitar to this day.
No word on if he ever recorded the guy’s song though…
If you want to hear Justin tell the story, it starts around the 53 minute mark.
