The Tragic Real-Life Story Of B.B. King

B.B. King's legendary guitar, Lucille, may be the only "woman" he ever truly loved. As the guitarist told Rolling Stone, the Gibson was considered his "homewrecker," and although he's had different variations of his beloved guitar, the adoration he had for them all never waned. So, how did King come across his first Lucille?

Still early in his professional career in 1949 (the same year he made his first album, per Biography), King would often play at an Arkansas nightclub called Twist. As the musician recalled to NPR, the Twist wasn't exactly a high-end establishment, and it was known to get chilly inside. As a result, employees would grab a garbage pail, fill it with fuel, and light it in the middle of the dance floor. As King remembered, one night, two men began fighting and knocked over the pail, leading to a massive fire in the club. After the musician got out, he remembered he had left his beloved guitar inside. "I went back for it ... I almost lost my life trying to save the guitar."

As King found out the next day, the cause of the altercation between the two men was a woman named Lucille. "I named my guitar Lucille and reminded me not to do a thing like that again." According to Biography, King later collaborated with Gibson to make a custom guitar, which, of course, took the moniker of his own famous instrument.

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