Blue Guitar To Stay On Mississippi License Plates

BILOXI, Miss. (AP) – Mississippi will have the license plate blues for one more year. That is, its license plates featuring a picture of blues legend BB King’s guitar “Lucille” and the phrase “Birthplace of America’s Music” will remain unchanged because the state legislature didn’t allocate funds to replace them.

The Sun Herald reports the state Department of Revenue was scheduled to release new plates in October, as it does every five years, but no money was appropriated. Department spokeswoman Kathy Waterbury says she doesn’t know when a new image will be introduced, but the department will take up the issue with the legislature during the next session.

The blue guitar plate replaced the Biloxi Lighthouse plate, which debuted in 2007 and paid homage to the resilience of the coast after Hurricane Katrina.