The scorching tale of Lucille

Sometimes a musical instrument can take on a personality that makes it as recognizable as the artist who plays it. This is certainly true of guitars. Eric Clapton has his well-worn Blackie. Willie Nelson has his rode-hard Trigger.

But the most famous guitar in the world has to be Lucille, the constant companion of blues’ great B. B. King. And the story of Lucille is as interesting as the story of the man who plays her.

As a young man barely out of his teens, Riley King had already proven himself to be a master of the blues, which had brought him from his hometown in Itta Bena, Mississipi, all the way to Memphis, Tennessee. There he caught the ear of Sonny Boy Williamson, the great blues harmonica player, who had his own radio show.

Riley King was given a small part of the show, where he immediately gained a following who renamed him The Beale Street Blues Boy King, which was later shortened to B. B. King.

Still, money was hard to come by, and King was forced to play wherever he could earn a few dollars.

In the winter of 1949, he was playing at a country dance hall in Twist, Mississippi. The building had no heat, and so a burning barrel of kerosene sat in the middle of the floor as dancers whirled around it.

During the night, however, two men lurched at each other, throwing punches. The kerosene barrel was knocked over, sending a river of fire across the floor.

The panicked audience rushed out into the winter air, as did the performers. Out in the cold, however, King realized that he had left his thirty dollar Gibson guitar sitting on the stage.

Without a second thought, he dashed back into the blaze to retrieve it, for that guitar was his life.

On that night, that guitar almost cost him his life, for the blaze killed two other people. King escaped without harm, though, and later he overheard two men talking about the fight.

“They was fighting over a gal named Lucille,” one man said.

“Shoot,” said the other man, “I know Lucille. Ain’t nothin’ about her I’d want to burn a house down for.”

The conversation had a deep impact on King, who on the spot named his charmed guitar Lucille, to remind him never again to do anything as stupid as to run into a burning building—or to fight over a woman. He even wrote a song entitled “Lucille,” in which he tells the story in his own words.

Over the course of his life, King has owned many guitars, and he has always called each one Lucille. He speaks of his guitars in the singular, though, as if it has always been one instrument. But one incarnation of Lucille resides in the National Music Museum, and King even gave a Lucille to Pope John Paul II.

At 85 years old, B. B. King is still regarded as one of the best guitarists in the world, and he still calls his beloved guitar Lucille. He has played her in more than 15,000 public performances.

In 1982, the Gibson Guitar Company released the B. B. King Lucille model, a black ES-355 semi-hollow body guitar with the name “Lucille” written in script on the headstock.

So now you, too, can set the blues world afire with your own Lucille.

But a word to the wise: Keep her away from the kerosene.

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