New York music fans got a little bit of extra bang for their concert bucks over the weekend as Peter Frampton played his legendary Les Paul on stage for the first time, celebrating the unbelievable return of the instrument, which had been missing and presumed lost for over 30 years.

Prior to that moment, Frampton’s mind was still a bit boggled. He commented, “I don’t know how I’m going to handle that,” and joked “I hope I can play,” when asked what it would feel like to play the guitar on stage again.

Indeed, he was visibly beaming as he revealed the six string treasure to the audience at the Beacon Theatre, telling them “this is the first time I’m going to play it with the band,” before going into his classic “Do You Feel Like We Do.”

The unlikely story began with Frampton receiving an email “with pictures of what looked like my guitar [although] it’s a little singed on the top.” Two years of negotiations eventually led to Frampton being reunited with the guitar when it was formally presented to him in a hotel in Nashville.

Frampton finds some symbolic significance in the timing of the guitar’s return. He says “if you think about it, my career sort of started to ebb when the guitar went away. Things have been going remarkably well over the last few years and I get my guitar back! It’s almost like the guitar said, ‘okay, you’re worthy again.’”

Watch Peter Frampton Play His Returned Les Paul For The First Time

 

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