Fan of country singer Justin Moore steals guitar off stage in drunken mistake at Mich. show

Drunken thief takes singer Justin Moore’s guitar

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Country singer Justin Moore knows his fans can get rowdy — maybe sometimes to a fault.

The singer says a drunken fan stole one of his guitars at a Michigan concert, but eventually returned Moore’s favorite Gibson guitar worth about $4,000 after the fan realized it was a drunken mistake.

Moore alerted fans on Twitter and a DJ posted the news about the stolen guitar on Detroit’s WYCD Web site. Moore’s tour manager also contacted the Royal Oak, Mich., police department, but charges were never filed.

On Sunday, the anonymous crook had a friend deliver the guitar to the radio station.

“Everybody was probably having a good time,” Moore said. “And in an inebriated state he goes, ‘Hey, that’d be cool if we had Justin’s guitar.’ When you wake up the next morning with a splitting headache, and go, ‘Oh, crap. What did I do?’ Thank god he had that conscience.”

Moore, 26, said the apology note that came with the guitar was hilarious.

“Everybody’s got drunk and made stupid mistakes,” Moore said. “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.”

For the record, the song is “How I Got To Be This Way.”

If Moore were to meet the guy at a future show, he said he wouldn’t hold a grudge.

“I’ll buy him a beer,” Moore said. “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.”

Moore scored his first No. 1 with “Small Town USA” last year off his debut self-titled album. He just wrapped up a 2010 run on Brad Paisley’s American Saturday Night Tour and will head back out with Paisley this summer on Paisley’s H20 Tour through the end of the year.

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On the Net:

www.moorejustinmusic.com