B.B. King s Lucille and the Loves Before Her chronicles the musician s rise from the instruments of his youth to the personalized Gibson Lucilles at the height of his career, the book shines a spotlight on the people and tools behind B.B. King s lengthy career. Inspired by the author s purchase of a pawnshop guitar, this publication takes the reader to every corner of B.B. King s instrumental travels, from the first single string Diddley Bow to the people who maintain and create the guitars and amplifiers he uses. It s not just for fans of the King of Blues anyone with a curiosity about great musicians, great guitars, and how both come to be will be swept up in both the facts and the narrative. John Oates once said, The guitar is a unique instrument that for some becomes almost an appendage ... a musical body part that translates emotion into sound and spreads it out to the universe ... Lucille and B.B. King exemplify this. B.B. King s Lucille and the Loves Before Her also pulls together a great deal of previously scattered facts, anecdotes, and information on the creation of the Gibson Signature Lucille model, a variety of guitars from 1937 to today, and a number of musicians, luthiers, and artists, who became a part of B.B. King s story. From why King played certain guitars, to pyrography and how his signature guitar saved his life, it dives into the history of guitars and blues music, with stories from the people who lived it.