An open fire in the middle of a lively dance floor in wooden building seemed like a recipe for disaster, but King says people respected it, grateful for the heat that it brought. But one night that winter, the worst possible scenario happened: The container was knocked over and the kerosene spilled, causing the fire to spread quickly.
“It was already burning, so when it spilled, it looked like a river of fire, and everybody ran for the front door, including yours truly,” King continued. “But when I got on the outside, then I realized that I'd left my guitar inside. I went back for it. The building was a wooden building, and it was burning so fast when I got my guitar, it started to collapse around me.”
At the time, his guitar was a
small-bodied Gibson L-30 archtop — and he learned the next morning that his risky move to save it could have been a disaster since two people died in the fire. And he also learned that the reason the container had been knocked over was that a fight broke out over a woman.
“I never did meet the lady, but I learned that her name was Lucille,” King explained. “So I named my guitar Lucille and reminded me not to do a thing like that again... I almost lost my life trying to save the guitar.”
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