South Carolina blues-rock guitarist Marcus King was still a teenager when he released his 2014 debut LP, Soul Insight. Five albums and a signature Gibson guitar later, King and his reputation remain as big and bold as ever.
He has a pretty good relationship with luck as well. As King recently revealed, he bought a guitar while he was drunk.
How drunk was he?
Let's just say he didn't even remember making the purchase.
As for the guitar? It was a 1966 Fender Esquire. Despite being four sheets to the wind, King was sharp enough to know a good thing when he played it.
“I was drinking a lot and forgot that I bought it,” he tells Guitar World. “The folks at Carter Vintage called me and were like, ‘You gonna come get this guitar?’
“It's probably the only good thing that ever came from my drinking.”
Thankfully, unlike Yvette Young, who bought a banjo to counter the awkwardness of third wheeling on a date, he hasn't suffered buyer's remorse. The Esquire, alongside his signature ES-345 Sixties Cherry, became a big part of his rig — once he got around to picking it up, that is.
However, he’s also confessed to barely playing any of his electric guitars when he’s at home and off the clock.
“Guitar is so deeply rooted in me. I like to play different instruments, and it helps my playing when I go back to the guitar,” he believes. “I read [bass guitarist] Victor Wooten's book [The Music Lesson], and he harped on the importance of being a musician, not a bass player. I have always been influenced by that idea. It’s a holy experience to be able to sit at a guitar and say exactly what I have on my mind.”
King’s talents have, in recent months, allowed him to play some rather historic guitars. In May, he took Jeff Beck's “YardBurst” Les Paul for a spin at Colorado's Red Rocks Amphitheatre, to “keep its story going.” Its owner, Matthieu Lucas of Matt's Guitar Shop in Paris, France, bought the guitar at last year's record-breaking auction of the late guitarist's gear, parting with $490,000 for the honor.
In support of Sandra Beck's desire that her husband's guitars would go on to be loved and played by a legion of other players, Lucas loaned it to Lenny Kravitz's foil, Craig Ross, for a full European tour earlier this year. King was the next recipient of Lucas' legacy-extending project.
Just two months later, he had Rory Gallagher’s Fender Telecaster, immortalized at during his Isle of Wight set in 1970. Lucas is also the owner of that guitar, having raided Rory Gallagher's gear auction last year, where his infamous relic'd Strat was sold for $1.16m.
“When you look at that guitar, you think about Rory's first band, Taste, most notably at Isle of Wight and all his career and legacy,” Lucas tells Guitar World. “I think Rory was one of the best guitar players that ever lived, and so is Marcus today. The feeling of having that legendary guitar being played so beautifully is an incredible sensation.”
King is now readying the release of his next album, Darling Blue, later this month. It sees the Grammy-nominated guitarist reuniting with his live band in the studio for the first time since 2018's Carolina Confessions.
“This album felt like a real concerted effort to make music for myself, and for ourselves as a band — creating for the love of creating and being as honest as we possibly can,” he says. “We put everything we had into making something that we love, and we have faith that the audience will feel that and love it too.”
His drunken purchase is likely to have played a key role in the record's creation. If buying a '66 Esquire is the worst thing he's done after a few tipples, he's gotten off lightly.
