Rants and Raves of the Bluesbaby

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Not all rock stars are flesh and blood. There are a handful of guitars with names and legends of their own. The most celebrated is probably B.B. King's Lucille, but there are others: Eric Clapton's Blackie, Stevie Ray Vaughan's Number One, Bo Diddley's Big B. They are sort of like movie cowboys and their horses. In fact, Willie Nelson named his battered and storied Martin acoustic Trigger because it was his version of Roy Roger's famous steed.

It reflects a special bond when you bestow a name on an inanimate object. Indeed, some famous guitarists have had affection for their instrument that approaches the attachment one might have for a lover. In his autobiography, "Blues All Around Me," King wrote, "With the possible exception of real life sex with a real life woman, no one gives me peace of mind like Lucille." Stevie Ray Vaughan actually called his battered Stratocaster First Wife as well as Number One and would fall asleep with it in his arms.

In a 2004 interview, Clapton described his pain when he saw Steven Bishop pick up Blackie and play it roughly in a studio: "This felt as if someone had taken a dagger and plunged it in my arm and was twisting it. It was that painful."

Here are the stories behind some of pop music's royal axes:

Eric Clapton and Blackie
Clapton actually built Blackie himself, assembling it from three different Stratocasters that he bought in 1970 at the Sho-Bud music shop in Nashville. Each of the three Strats sold for $100. Clapton retired Blackie in the mid-'80s, and in 2004 Christie's Auction House in New York sold the guitar at auction for $959,500, which, according to Clapton's fan club, made it the most expensive guitar in history. The money went to support Clapton's Crossroads drug rehabilitation center.

Clapton realized how much of himself was invested in Blackie when he tripped and fell on the guitar during the recording sessions for "461 Ocean Boulevard."

"The body and neck were totally gone, but after a few little running repairs, it was playing as good as new within half an hour. That's when I thought: This guitar is my life. It can take as much damage as me. I can pick it up, drop it or bounce it off the wall and it will still be in tune and play with heart and soul. It's irreplaceable."

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Number One/First Wife
It speaks to Vaughan's attachment to First Wife that after his tragic death in a helicopter crash in 1990 near Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, rumors circulated that the guitar was buried with him. In 1973, long before he was famous, the Dallas blues rock sensation acquired Number One from Ray Hennig, owner of Heart of Music in Austin.

"Stevie didn't have any money back in those early, early days," says Craig Hopkins, author of "The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan. "He would come in, and every once in a while he would borrow a guitar for a gig. Ray would say, 'Yeah, go ahead, take it.' At one point, Stevie came in and he found Number One hanging on the wall there, and he decided he wanted to take it with him to try it out. So he did. Anyway, he comes back to Ray and says, 'Hey, Ray. I've got this nice, fairly new blue Stratocaster. Would you trade that old beat-up Strat for this nice blue one?'

"Ray says, 'Well, sure. Go ahead.' That's how Stevie got Number One. He traded Ray a guitar that Ray already owned to get Number One. Number One was a gift. Stevie never paid anything for it."

A "mongrel" with a '62 neck and '63 body, Number One took a beating over the years, and various parts had to replaced from the times Vaughan twirled it by the whammy bar or leaned his weight against the body trying to get more feedback. Of course, Number One also gave as good as it got. Vaughan played with extra-heavy strings, and they would tear up his fingers.

"Stevie would get callouses just like any other major guitar player, and if those callouses would start to tear off, he'd just Superglue them back on," Hopkins says. "You think that's kind of outrageous, but that's what Superglue was originally designed to do. It was designed for medical uses in combat."

In 1989, gouged, battered and scarred, Number One had gone through numerous repairs, and it was determined that the neck couldn't take another re-fret, so it was replaced with a '63 neck. That neck was snapped in 1990 when some stage scenery fell it on it at the Garden State Center in New Jersey. Another '63 neck was found as a replacement, and Number One ended up missing only one show. It was with Stevie Ray that night at Alpine Valley. In 2003 Fender produced a custom replica of Number One, right down to the gouges and worn finish.

Willie Nelson and Trigger
Unlike most of our celebrity guitars, Trigger is an acoustic; a Martin N-20 acoustic classical guitar that Nelson purchased back in 1969 for $750 from a Nashville luthier named Shot Jackson. A Roy Rogers fan, Willie named the guitar Trigger figuring it was his trusty sidekick, just like the golden palomino was Roy's

Over the years, Trigger has seen extended service, and a large hole has been worn in the body. It's also covered with 100 autographs from famous friends such as Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Leon Russell and Gene Autry.

Trigger is testament to the idea that you take all the rules and throw them out the window," says Tom Wheeler, former editor of Guitar Player and author of "The Stratocaster Chronicles." "Who would think that a guitar that's been battered to the point that there's a hole in the sound board would not only sound tolerable, but would sound good and be very distinctive. Which it is."

It is a sign of his affection that Willie refuses to let anybody tamper with Trigger by trying to repair the body. It is a further sign of his affection that during his famous scrapes with the Internal Revenue Service, Nelson is said to have hidden Trigger at this manager's house to keep the government from confiscating it.

In 1999, Martin manufactured a limited edition replica of Trigger to celebrate its 30th birthday.