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Our American Stories

How B.B. King’s Guitar “Lucille” Got Her Name

Our American Stories

iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.6817 Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2026

⏱️ 8 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this episode of Our American Stories, long before B.B. King became a blues legend, he nearly lost his life running back into a burning Arkansas juke joint to save his guitar. That night, after learning two men had started the fight over a woman named Lucille, King gave the guitar a name he would carry with him for the rest of his life. B.B. King’s longtime friend Myron Johnson and Daniel de Visé, author of King of the Blues, share the story.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

This is an I-Heart podcast.

0:02.5

Guaranteed Human.

0:14.0

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories,

0:18.7

the show where America is the star and the American people. You search for the Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people.

0:22.8

To search for The Our American Stories podcast, go to the IHeart Radio app to Apple Podcasts,

0:29.5

or wherever you get your podcasts.

0:32.7

Neil Young has old black, Willie Nelson has Trigger, and Elvis Presley had the dove. But perhaps the most

0:40.6

famous nickname for a guitar is what B.B. King named his Gibson ES 355, and that is Lucille.

0:50.8

Up next, the story of how that guitar got its name. Here to start us off is B.B. King's longtime friend, Myron Johnson,

0:58.7

followed by Daniel DeVise, author of The King of the Blues.

1:03.6

Let's get into the story.

1:05.9

That story's been repeated and told.

1:08.7

I'm amazed that it's remained consistent as it has over the years because, you know,

1:14.6

you can start a conversation at one end and after it passes through four or five people that comes out on the other

1:20.6

and completely different than what it started, but very consistent with that and that.

1:25.6

BB was doing a performing at a jug joint.

1:31.3

Sort of an off the books joint in the black community.

1:34.3

In Twist, Arkansas.

1:36.3

Which is named for a white family called Twist.

1:38.3

There's probably a sharecropping community.

1:40.3

And doing his performance while he was on stage, these two guys ended up finding out that

1:47.3

they were romancing the same woman.

...

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