Story: During the winter of 1949, the young blues guitarist was playing at a neighborhood club in Twist, Arkansas. On cold nights, the club was heated with gas. A barrel half-filled with kerosene in the center of the dance floor was lit to keep the place warm. That night, while King was playing, two guys got into a fight and knocked over the barrel, spilling flaming kerosene onto the wood floor. “It looked like a river of fire,” King said, “so I ran outside. But when I got on the outside, I realize I left my guitar inside.” He raced back into the burning building to save his budget model Gibson L-30 acoustic guitar… And nearly lost his life.
The next day, King found out the men were fighting over a woman named Lucille who worked in the dancehall. So King decided to name his L-30 and every Gibson that he played after that Lucille, as a reminder to himself never to do anything so risky again. The king of blues later wrote a song around his famous succession of Gibson guitars. MCA Records released the album Lucille, his 15th studio album, in 1968. During recordings of his nearly 130 albums, King often played a Fender Telecaster, but he’s best known for playing Gibson ES-355 guitars. In 1980 the Gibson Guitar Company launched the BB King Lucille model guitar and, for King’s 80th birthday in 2005, Gibson made 80 special edition BB King’s 80th birthday Lucille’s.
Passed along by John Bollack on Fb on 10/16/15