Remembering the life of B.B. King through his many lovesthe guitars he called Lucille.
The story of B.B. King's Lucille has been told and retold so many times that it has taken on the contours of myth. December 1949. A makeshift nightclub in Twist, Arkansas, packed with dancers and heated by a kerosene fire set inside a metal garbage barrel. Singer and guitarist Riley King, 24 years old and just starting to go by the stage name B.B., is providing the entertainment: blues that's both smooth and lowdown, boldly delivered in the manner of masters like T-Bone Walker and Pee Wee Crayton.
As the music gets louder, a fistfight breaks out between two men. Down goes the barrel of kerosene; up in flames goes the room. In terror for their lives, everyone rushes to the door, including King. But once he's out of the club, he realizes he's forgotten something: the black Gibson L-30 archtop that he'd bought not long before for the princely sum of $30 and fitted with a DeArmond pickup. His only guitar.
Even if you don't already know the rest, you can probably guess. King dashes into the burning building, dodges a falling roof beam, grabs the L-30, and darts back out as a wall collapses behind him. His legs are singed, but the instrument cradled in his arms is blemish-free. A few minutes later, he learns that the fistfight was over a woman, called Lucille. On the spur of the moment, he decides to give his guitar the same name...
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Later, we remember the life of the blues giant, B.B. King, through his many loves the guitars he called Lucille.