“I went backstage and said to Rory, ‘There’s a guy out there called Slash who’s come to see you…’ Rory’s eyes lit up”: The night Rory Gallagher gave the Guns N’ Roses guitarist a taste of affordable Gibson via his 1960 Melody Maker

This 1960 Melody Maker was nudged in a more Les Paul-like direction, with the addition of a humbucker at the bridge, when Rory Gallagher acquired it in 1985 originally for slide work. However, when a certain member of Guns N’ Roses turned up at a Los Angeles gig to pay homage to Rory, it came in handy for another purpose, as his brother Donal Gallagher explains.

“In March of 1991, we’d arrived back in LA after a long flight from Sydney. Oddly enough, we’d left Australia on 2 March, which was Rory’s birthday. I’d kind of planned the flights so that Rory would get two birthdays [after crossing the International Date Line].

“The first gig in LA was at the Roxy down on the Strip. Anyway, thanks to this sort of Lost In Translation flight experience, everyone was not in the best of humour. So I was just trying to get everyone’s spirits up for the show and kick off the whole tour at the Roxy.

“And somebody said that Slash from Guns N’ Roses was there and the bass player, Duff McKagan, and that they’d come to see Rory. So I went backstage and said to Rory, ‘There’s a guy out there called Slash, who’s come to see you.’ I didn’t personally know too much about him.

“I kind of knew of the band but not much about him as an individual – but Rory’s eyes lit up and he went, ‘Oh my God.’ I said that they were asking if Slash could come up and have a jam. And Rory said, ‘All right.’”

“Rory gave me chapter and verse about how Slash was great and a brilliant player and then he said, ‘Oh, go and find the Gibson Melody Maker’ for him. A lot of the gear still hadn’t arrived by airfreight from Australia at that point, but luckily the Melody Maker had and it was just out in the truck, so I brought it in.

“Rory said, ‘Oh, he’ll like playing that.’ If Rory ever invited another guitarist up for a jam session, he’d make sure that they got a guitar that Rory considered they’d be very comfortable with.”

“So, anyway, at the end of the show we signalled that it was time for the jam session and Slash comes up and I said, ‘Oh, Rory wants you to have this guitar for the jam.’ He strapped it on [with approval] and went, ‘Oh my God, a Melody Maker, how did he figure that out?’ But that was Rory. And it was an excellent jam.”

• The Rory Gallagher Collection will be auctioned at Bonhams in New Bond Street, London, on 17 October 2024.