{"id":488339,"date":"2019-07-24T07:30:07","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T13:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=862789"},"modified":"2019-07-24T07:30:07","modified_gmt":"2019-07-24T13:30:07","slug":"b-b-king-one-of-blues-legends-lucille-guitars-headed-to-auction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/music-news\/b-b-king-one-of-blues-legends-lucille-guitars-headed-to-auction\/","title":{"rendered":"B.B. King: One of Blues Legend\u2019s \u2018Lucille\u2019 Guitars Headed to Auction"},"content":{"rendered":"
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One of B.B. King<\/a>\u2019s iconic Gibson electric guitars \u2014 each affectionately nicknamed \u201cLucille\u201d<\/a> \u2014 will soon hit the auction block. The late blues musician\u2019s black ES-345 prototype, a gift from the guitar company to mark King\u2019s 80th birthday, is valued between $80,000 and $100,000 for Julien\u2019s Auctions\u2019<\/a> September 21st sale.<\/span><\/p>\n

The instrument, which includes a crown inlaid with mother-of-pearl and a headstock emblazoned with \u201cB.B. King 80,\u201d was one of the guitarist\u2019s primary instruments in his later touring years. It is accompanied by a hard leather case featuring \u201cB.B. King\u201d embroidered in gold.<\/span><\/p>\n

The auction also features other items from the King estate, including a National Medal of Arts presented in 1990 by George H.W. Bush (valued between $20,000 and $30,000), a stage and photoshoot gold ring with \u2018BB\u2019 on the top ($8,000 to $10,000), his 2010 G35 Touring Van used during his final tours ($8,000 to $10,000), an 18-karat yellow gold Hopkins & Hopkins pocket watched gifted by U2 (engraved \u201cB.B. King\u201d on the back and \u201cLove U2 \u201989\u201d in the interior) ($3,000 to $5,000), his Hollywood Walk of Fame plaque received in 1990 ($4,000 to $6,000), his honorary 1977 Doctorate of Music diploma from Yale University ($800 to $1,200) and a handmade red leather guitar case embossed \u201cLucille and B.B. King\u201d and inscribed \u201cHappy Birthday from the B.B King Orchestra\u201d ($1,000 to $2,000), among other items.<\/span><\/p>\n

King, who died in 2015<\/a> at age 89, owned a series of \u201cLucille\u201d guitars over the years. The legend is traced back to 1949, when, after a fire broke out during a brawl at one of his shows, he entered the burning building to rescue the guitar; upon realizing the fight was over a woman named Lucille, he named his future guitars the same \u2014 a reminder, Julien\u2019s notes, \u201cto never fight over a woman or run into a burning building.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The 80th Birthday \u201cLucille\u201d has an equally fascinating backstory. King used the guitar as his primary stage instrument until it was stolen during the summer of 2009. Months later, a guitar trader named Eric Dahl stumbled upon the axe at a Las Vegas pawn shop, unaware of the instrument\u2019s value. \u201cThe whole thing was covered in sweat. The strings were nasty,\u201d he <\/span> told Gibson.com<\/span><\/a>. \u201cThen I flipped it over and looked at the headstock and it said, \u2018Prototype 1\u2019 in a white stamp \u2026 I assumed it meant this was one of the original 80th Birthday model Lucilles that B.B. King had approved.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Intrigued by the headstock, Dahl reached out to Gibson and eventually learned its history. King met with Dahl and traded him a new \u201cLucille\u201d for the 80th Birthday model.<\/span><\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of B.B. King\u2019s iconic Gibson electric guitars \u2014 each affectionately nicknamed \u201cLucille\u201d \u2014 will soon hit the auction block. The late blues musician\u2019s black ES-345 prototype, a gift from the guitar company to mark King\u2019s 80th birthday, is valued between $80,000 and $100,000 for Julien\u2019s Auctions\u2019 September 21st sale. The instrument, which includes a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-488339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 03:47:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KQZR - The Reel","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}