B.B. King

Way back in 1979, I was working as a waitress at Harrah’s casino in South Lake Tahoe. My husband was working as a room service waiter. Life was pretty sweet then. We lived is the Shamrock hotel which was owned by Harrah’s and the rooms were for employees only. The rent was taken out of our paychecks and we had no other living expenses like utilities. We could eat at work for free in the employee cafeteria, even on our days off if we wore our uniforms. We found out that B.B. King was going to play at Harrah’s and my husband and I both really loved him and planned to see him. Being in room service, my husband had this plan to take one of our records of B.B. to his room to have it autographed. Well, he goes to the door, unannounced, record in tow, and knocks on the door. B.B. opens the door and is standing there in all his 300lb. or so grandeur, IN HIS BOXERS!!! A little flustered, my husband apologizes, says he is a huge fan and could he sign his record? B.B. just started laughing and said, “sure”. He signed the album simply “B.B. King”.

That night we went to this small theater in the casino to watch him play the midnight show. It was a two drink minimum and we wanted to get our money’s worth and ordered Zombies, a strong layered rum drink. After one drink, we were feeling pretty loose and looked at the clock and B.B. was due on stage any minute. As we looked around the room, we realized there was another couple across the room and another towards the back, that was it. Six people had showed up to see B.B. King! We thought the concert had to have been canceled and we didn’t know it. A minute later B.B. walks out on stage, sheilds his eyes to scan “the crowd”. We were clapping and hooting and praying he wouldn’t just leave. He says, “Why don’t you guys in the back come on up here so you can hear better” Then he began to play. He played as if he was playing a packed colosium. His guitar plucked strings in our souls. He alternated singing and playing the guitar. When he sang he leaned back, eyes closed and pulled the lyrics out of his gut. After two songs, he said,"So what do you guys wanna hear?” Without a second gone, my husband yells out, “Lucille!!” B.B. laughed and said,"O.K. I’ll tell you the story about how this here guitar, Lucille, saved my life” He went into a half hour long rendition of Lucille that I can’t even describe because it was truly magical. He went on to play more and with each song we could not believe we were witnessing this. Finally he said, “ Thank you very much and I gotta say, you guys were one of the best audiences I ever played for. Good night”. He turned to leave the stage and you never heard six people cheer so loud. The lights came on in the room and the spell was broken, but the memory was imprinted permanently.

Years later, in 1989, B.B. played a small venue where we lived and my husband coincidently was working there as a bouncer. He reminded B.B. of the concert we saw, and B.B. asked him to be his personal assistant for the evening. So B.B. needed an unending supply of ice tea and my husband stayed in his dressing room with him and no one else was allowed in. At the very time this was happening, I was going into labor with my 3rd child and no one could get my husband the message until after the concert was over, by the time he got to the hospital, my son had already been born. Alas, B.B. King is the nicest, classiest, and most down-to-earth man I have ever had the pleasure of encountering in my life.