Lucille is the name American blues musician B.B. King (1925–2015) gave to his guitars. They were usually black Gibson guitars similar to the ES-345-355, and Gibson introduced a B.B. King custom model in 1980.
In the winter of 1949, King played at a dance hall in Twist, Arkansas. The hall was heated by a barrel half-filled with burning kerosene set in the middle of the dance floor, a fairly common practice at the time. During a performance, two men began to fight, knocking over the barrel and sending the burning fuel across the floor. The hall burst into flames and was evacuated.
Once outside however, King realized that he had left his guitar inside so he went back into the burning building to retrieve his beloved $30 Gibson guitar. King learned the next day that the two men who started the fire had been fighting over a woman who worked at the hall named Lucille. King did not know Lucille but named that guitar, and every guitar he subsequently owned, Lucille, as a reminder never again to do something as stupid as run into a burning building or fight over a woman.[B.B. King wrote a song called Lucille in which he talks about his guitar and how it got its name. The song was first released on the album Lucille and is included on the B. B. King Anthology 1962–1998 album. King also recorded a track called "My Lucille" (which also references his guitar). Written by Ira Newborn, it was released in 1985 and was part of the music for the film "Into the night" starring Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer.
LYRICS :
The sound that you're listening to
Is from my guitar that's named Lucille
I'm very crazy about Lucille
Lucille took me from the plantation
Oh you might say
Brought me fame
I don't think I could just talk enough about Lucille
Sometime when I'm blue seem like Lucille try to help me call my name
I used to sing spirituals and I thought that this
Was the thing that I wanted to do
But somehow or other
When I went in the army
I picked up on Lucille
And started singing blues
Well
Now when I'm paying my dues
"Maybe you don't know what I mean when I say
Paying dues, I mean when things are bad with me"
I can always, I can always
You know like uhm
Depend on Lucille
Sort of hard to talk to you myself
I guess I'll let Lucille say a few words and then
You know
I doubt if you can feel it like I do
But when I think about the things that I've gone through
Like, well for instance
If I have a girlfriend
And she misuses me, and I go home at night
Maybe I'm lonely
Well not maybe
I am lonely
I pick up Lucille
And it bring out those funny sounds that sound good to me
You know
Sometime I get to the place where I can't even say nothing
Look out.
Sometime I think it's crying.
You know, if I could sing pop tunes like Frank Sinatra
Or Sammy Davis Junior
I don't think I still could do it
'Cause Lucille don't wanna play nothing but the blues
I think
I'm, I think
I'm pretty glad about that
'Cause don't nobody sing to me
Like
Sing, Lucille
Well, I'll put it like this
Take it easy, Lucille.
I like the way Sammy sings and I like the way Frank
Sings, but I can get a little Frank, Sammy, a little Ray Charles
In fact all the people with soul in this
A little Mahalia Jackson in there.
One more, Lucille!
Take it easy now
You know
I imagine a lot of you wanna know
Ablot of you wanna know why I call the guitar Lucille?
Lucille has practically saved my life two or three times
No kidding, it really has
I remember once I was in an automobile accident
And when the car stopped turning over, it fell over on Lucille,
And it held it up off me
Really it held it up off me
So that's one time it saved my life
The way, the way I came by the name of
Lucille, I was over in Twist, Arkansas
I know you've never heard of that one, have you?
And one night the guys started a ball over there, you know
They started brawling, you know what I mean.
And the guy that was mad with his old lady
When she fell over on this gas tank that was burning for heat
The gas ran all over the floor
And when the gas ran all over the floor
The building caught on fire, and almost burned me up trying to save
Lucille
Oh I, I imagine you're still wondering why I call it Lucille?
The lady that started that brawl that night was named Lucille
