Episode Details

B.B. King named his guitar Lucille after nearly dying in a fire caused by two men fighting over a woman by that name. He played her every night for the next fifty years, developing a vibrato and string-bending style so distinctive that a single note was enough to identify him.

This episode traces King from picking cotton in Mississippi through his years as a Memphis radio DJ, his rise as the most important blues guitarist of the postwar era, and his late-life recognition as a national treasure.

• He named every one of his guitars Lucille after a near-fatal juke joint fire in 1949
• He played over 200 concerts a year for most of his career
• His vibrato technique influenced virtually every blues and rock guitarist who followed him
• He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987