B. B. King - Make the people happy
by Walter Carter

From his early days as a Memphis deejay, to the pop chart success of "The Thrill Is Gone" in 1970, to his new status as owner of a chain of blues clubs - B.B. King has introduced the blues to a wider audience than any other artist. At the opening of his new blues club in Nashville (9/29), he summed up the secret to his success in one word: "People."

"I wanted to make the people happy,"" he said. "I'm able to do like I've heard songs say - I'm playing for me - but if I had people around me I wanted to make them happy. I wanted to see them pat their feet, maybe say 'Yeah,' or just nod their heads in the affirmative, you know. And I personally believe that they were the ones who did the most for me. I always tried to show people that I loved them, liked them and loved them."

B.B.'s people - his fans - include the Gibson company, who teamed up with B.B. back in 1980 to create "Lucille," the name he gave to all of his guitars. "I've worked with many people that did work for and with Gibson, and everybody seemed to be concerned with what I thought," he recalled. "I don't remember who they all were but there was a long line, a long list. Everybody was just always good to me, like going through a great store, they always went, 'What about this? Can we do this? Can we do that?' And that impressed me. Still does."

Gibson and B.B. designed the Lucille model on the semi-hollowbody style of Gibson's ES-355, with the 355's stereo output and Varitone rotary tone selector. Lucille's unique quality was its lack of soundholes. B.B. elaborated on his choice of features:

No soundholes: "I don't want feedback - unless I want it. And a lot of times with the S-holes if you really crank it up and the amplifier is close to you, you will get feedback. I'm no technical person, but I do know that. I know how to get feedback from Lucille when I want it. But only when I want it."

Stereo: "Why not be high tech, man? If you're gonna go high tech, go all the way. I do think really that when you're playing, there's nothing bad about hearing the highs and the lows both when you want to hear them. So stereo gives you that chance. You put your toggle switch (pickup selector) in the center and use two amps if you want, and you've got highs on one and lows on the other."

Varitone: "If I'm fooling around and want to get a particular sound, I use it, but that's all for the young technical people. For me, set the toggle switch in the center and let go."

The Lucille has become one of the flagship models of the "ES" line from Gibson Memphis, and it's reached a level of popularity that has spawned a version in the Epiphone line, which pleases B.B. "A lot of times I have people ask me about a guitar and say 'Lucille just costs so much.' Well, have you tried Epiphone? There is no other guitar, after Lucille, that's any better."

B.B.'s personal experience encompassed a wide range of guitars prior to the Gibson Lucille. When he was still Riley B. King, growing up in Indianola, Miss., he played a cheap Stella acoustic. Somewhere along the way he played an Epiphone, too. His first Gibson was an L-30, a smallbody acoustic archtop that he outfitted with a deArmond pickup. He went through several hollowbody Gibson archtops before settling on the semi-hollowbody style that became Lucille. While he and Lucille have been inseparable for over 20 years, he explained that the instrument is not always as important as the player: "Hey, some people buy a Mercedes and some people buy a Volkswagen. They both get you where you're going."

Where B.B. and Lucille are going lately is B.B. King's Blues Clubs. The Nashville club is his third, and it's a dream come true after all his years playing for other club owners. "I never dreamed that this would ever happen," he said, "but to see my name on a club, to be able to go into this club and sit and play as long as I want to, and to have people come in and look at you and have a little drink with you or whatever, dance to the music if they want to, it's something I never dreamed of. I feel that I'm one of the lucky people that's alive, one of the luckiest."

Among those who came to the opening of the Nashville club were legendary guitarists - including James Burton, Larry Carlton and Steve Cropper - who wanted to play with B.B. He likes playing with everyone, he said, young and old. "Young people, I learn a lot from. Older people I also learn a lot from. I enjoy them, I really enjoy them. I always believe that people who get to be popular, they had something. Somebody liked what they were doing. And if you pay attention, you - the person that's listening - will find that there's something there other people have heard that maybe you hadn't heard, and that's why they become popular. And my hat's off to them."

Wherever he plays, B.B. will always have Lucille with him. "I don't think I'll ever get tired of her in this life," he said. "And if I've had a good time in this life, and if there is another one, I'm sure I'll be just as ready for it then."

He feels no need to take Lucille with him when he goes, however. "I don't want to bury one with me because someone else can enjoy it," he said. "In the hereafter I think - I hope - I can get another one there."