B.B. King & Lucille

Sunday we went to see B.B. King with my dad, step-mother & brother. B.B. King has been one of my dad's favorite performers and has been a hero to him ever since he learned that he, like King, has diabetes.

It was a great show - Lukas Nelson (Willie Nelson's son) and his band Promise of the Real (brother Micah plays drums) opened. B.B. King is 84 years young. Of course he played Lucille, his beloved guitar.

Here's the story behind Lucille:

In the winter of 1949, King played at a dance hall in Twist, Arkansas. To heat the hall they used kerosene. During the show 2 men got into a fight knocking over the kerosene barrel onto the floor. The hall burst into flames and sent everyone to evacuate the building. Once outside, King realized he had left his Gibson acoustic guitar in the building. He went back into the burning building to retrieve it. 2 people died in the fire. The next day, King learned that the 2 men were fighting over a woman named Lucille. He named that guitar Lucille & every guitar he owned since that night as a reminder never again to do something so stupid as to run into a burning building to fetch a guitar or to fight over a woman.

It was cool to know that one of my dad's bucket-list dreams could be checked off. He got to see a music legend before it was too late.