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Canadian rock icon Randy Bachman returns home with long-lost guitar

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His famous guitar was stolen almost 46 years ago, and ever since that day Canadian rock legend Randy Bachman has dreamed of the day he'd bring it back home.

Wednesday was that day and CTV News was there for the final chapter of the rock reunion.

"This happens to everybody," Bachman said, standing with the guitar in the arrivals area of Victoria International Airport. "You're in the middle of a great dream and you don't want to wake up because it's a great dream."

Bachman recorded hit after hit on his 1957 Gretsch guitar with the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive. In 1976, the guitar was stolen from a Toronto hotel room.

After decades of searching, an internet sleuth located the guitar in the hands of a Japanese musician in Tokyo, named Takeshi.

Last October, plans were made to return the guitar to Bachman, who said the first riff he planned to play on the lost axe was his hit "Takin' Care of Business."

Bachman and Takeshi took care of business on Canada Day at the Canadian embassy in Tokyo.

Now, a documentary is in the works on the epic lost-and-found story.

Bachman says he will head back to Japan to record part of the film's soundtrack with Takeshi.

As for the guitar? "It's going to go home and never leave my house," Bachman said Wednesday.

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