S cott Gorham’s 1957   Gibson Les Paul   Standard is one of the Thin Lizzy hero’s most prized   electric guitars   – but just a month after buying it, he faced a fight to fly it overseas.

Originally acquired in the late 1970s, the guitar was sold to Gorham for a princely sum of $2,300 by a vintage guitar dealer who visited the band while they were in Boston.

Gorham was besotted with the ‘Holy Grail’ guitar, and – with the enthusiastic encouragement of his colleagues – quickly snapped up the Les Paul, and began playing it while in the States.

When it came to traveling to London a few weeks later, though, Gorham ran afoul of the airport customs security, who seized his new pride and joy while it was entering the country.

“I played that ’57 for a month in the States,” Gorham recalls in the new issue of   Guitarist . “We get back to Heathrow and the customs guy has all our cases out, with the lids flipped up.

“And he went straight for that Les Paul. He says, ‘What a beautiful guitar – how much did you pay for it?’ I said, ‘$2,300.’ He goes, ‘Really? On the carnet here it says $600.’ He closes the lid – whack! ‘That’s my guitar now.’”

As a result of the incorrect carnet – which, in the context of music gear, is effectively a passport for goods that lets you take equipment out of the country without paying tax or duties – Gorham’s newly acquired ‘57 Les Paul Standard was confiscated.

In order to smooth over the issue and get his Les Paul back safe and sound, Gorham had to go to court. Fortunately, London Heathrow airport had its own court, which would hear Gorham’s case.

“So we had to go to court, right there at Heathrow,” he continues. “I didn’t even know they had a court. A guy comes in, he’s got the black robe on, and he goes, ‘Well, Mr Gorham, we find you guilty – and the fine is the price of the guitar, plus £750 for breaking the law.’”

But Gorham did get the guitar back, and he’d put it to good use for the rest of Thin Lizzy’s career. As he explained in a previous interview with   MusicRadar   (above), it became his number-one recording instrument.

“I used this guitar right after the   Jailbreak   album and right to the end of the band at that point,” he said. “Whatever guitar sounds you’re hearing on those albums, it will be this guitar.”

Visit   Magazines Direct   to pick up the latest issue of   Guitarist , which features the full interview with Gorham.