They say that when you're feeling bad, listening to and playing the blues can help a person feel better. That's the good news for Ron Thompson, but the Northern California blues legend remains a long way from feeling good.
Monday night, Thompson had driven home several hundred miles from a gig. He was tired. Normally, he would unpack. This time he didn't. The next morning, his car and prized guitar were gone.
"It was like, I don't want to say what I said; I couldn't believe it, couldn't believe it," Thompson said.
His 1959, ES-125 T, hollow-body Gibson was gone. Thompson has played it since childhood.
The Hayward police took a report about the missing car, the guitar and thousands of dollars of other stolen equipment.
When Thompson played in Fresno Thursday night, he used borrowed instruments from the central valley blues society, which has also begun searching.
"I mean, the one guitar, the Gibson ES 125 has his name inlaid in the neck. No one would want to buy that from the thief unless he's selling it for nothing," Don Heflin, of the Central Valley Blues Society, said.
Thompson just had one thing to say in case the person with his guitar was listening.
"Just give it back, please, just give it back," he said.
