The Story of this Guitar

I was born in 1954 at a little shop around Nashville, TN. Crafted by the most talented guitar maker in instrument history. The name on my birth certificate reads “Gibson – Les Paul Custom.” Others came to know me as Black Beauty. The name stuck and I’ve never been able to shake it. I’m ok with that.

I have matured in the fifty-seven years I’ve been around. I have been surprised to see that most of the players find me more attractive now then when I was younger. There are definitely those who find every little fault they can to show that I am not as perfect as I should be. I try to ignore those guys. I am a Gibson. I am incapable of producing the perfect sound you desire.

The guy who bought me new out of the shop played me as is. He didn’t seem to care for me much. I sat in a corner and collected dust. Eventually, I was locked in a case. In the mid-Sixties, a guy named Billy Gibbons opened my case and plucked my strings. He placed some green bills in my previous owner’s hand and I was carried out the door. Billy tore out my insides. He gave me all new components. I’ll never forget the first time he played me. He plugged me into an amplifier and hit my strings. I’ll never forget Billy’s smile. He said, “man she sounds sick.” He has kept me around and still plays me faithfully. Some of his other guitars acquired costumes. He always kept me the same.

I picked up some bruises along the way. This laceration near my pickup switch happened when Joe Perry dropped me during a drunken stupor backstage sometime in 1976. The hole in my back is from Billy’s belt buckle. I’ve got a good size bump near my input jack from when a guy named Ted Nugent slammed my butt onto the top of someone’s long–neck Corona. Not only did he shatter the bottle, he lost his grip and I fell onto the corner of a concrete step. Most of my other bumps came from careless roadies who had no vested interest in my well being.

There are times when I never really understand Billy’s faithfulness to my place within his guitar rack. I’ve seen so many guitars come and go. Why does he keep me? I have so many scars and lacerations. I’m old. I don’t feel like those shiny new guitars. There were times when he had to bring me into a shop for intonation work because I wasn’t producing the sound that he was accustomed to. That happened a lot depending on the temperature outside. Nothing made sense until, one day, he brought me with him to a Guitar Center interview.

This is what he said:

Interviewer: Billy, you’ve been playing this Beauty for years. What is so special about this one?

Billy (without hesitation): Everything about her is beautiful. She might look a little ratty on the outside, but, to me, she is the most beautiful thing in the world. I’m never going to leave her as long as she’ll have me. Let me show you what she sounds like….

Romans 8:37-39