B.B. King Announces One-Night Stand at Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami

via bbking.com

​If you're a genuine blues junkie jonesing for that groove, shout, "Riding with the King!"

Guitar master, American Roots legend, and celebrity spokesman for the OneTouch blood glucose monitoring device B.B. King has just announced a one-night stand in Miami as part of the the 2011-2012 Knight Masterworks Season Pops Series.

On Wednesday, January 4, 2012, ol' Blues Boy and his sweet-sounding better half, Lucille, a fine and fat-bodied Gibson guitar, will be rockin' 'n' rollin' at the Adrienne Arsht Center.

The romance between B.B. and his beautiful Gibson is the blues' greatest love story. And it started decades ago on a snowy night in a ramshackle blues joint.



"We used to play at this little nightclub," King has recalled. "And in winter, it got pretty cold there. They would take something that looked like a big garbage pail, half fill it with kerosene, and light that fuel, set it in the middle of the dance floor, and that's what we used for heat in winter."

Sounds insanely dangerous, right? Well, as B.B. has told the tale, "Two guys start to fightin', and one knocked the other one on this container. It spilled on the floor and it looked like a river of fire.

"Everybody started to run for the front door, including B.B. King. But when I got on the outside, I realized that I'd left my guitar inside. So I went back for it.

"The building was a wooden building and it started burning rapidly. It started to fall in around me. I almost lost my life tryin' to save my guitar.

"And the next morning, we found that these two guys was fightin' about a lady who worked in the little nightclub. I never did meet her. But I learned that her name was Lucille.

"I named my guitar Lucille to remind me to never do a thing like that again."

Maybe, B.B. But if someone spills the kerosene at the Arsht Center, you can bet that Ol' Blues Boy will be running back inside to save that fine and fat-bodied Gibson. She's just too fine to leave behind.

B.B. King. Wednesday, January 4. Adrienne Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami. The concert begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are available for $49 on November 14 to Arsht members and November 19 to the general public via arshtcenter.org. Call 305-949-6722 or visit arshtcenter.org.

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