B.B. King's 'Lucille' — Gibson ES-355 (1980)

B.B. King named every one of his guitars Lucille, and this is one of them. This 1980 Gibson ES-355 was B.B.'s touring guitar throughout the 1980s — you can see the honest wear on the back where it rested against his considerable belly night after night, decade after decade. B.B. always said Lucille spoke for him, said the things words couldn't say, and when you hold this guitar you understand exactly what he meant. The neck has been worn smooth as silk from tens of thousands of hours of playing. I was fortunate enough to meet B.B. three times in my life — once at a backstage meet-and-greet in Las Vegas, once at a Chicago blues club where he bought me a drink at the bar, and once at an auction where we were both after the same guitar. He outbid me that night, but he shook my hand afterward and said 'You'll get the next one, young man.' This is the next one, B.B. I finally got her.