Legendary Guitar Players
Albert Lee
Beck
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Carlos Santana
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Jimmie Hendrix
Jimmy Page
Joe Satriani
Larry Carlton
Les Paul
Luther Perkins
Mark Knopfler
Robert Johnson
Roy Clark
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Tommy Emmanuel
Available Guitar Players
B.B. King
Riley B. King
BORN:
September 16, 1925, Baltimore, MD
Gibson Custom
Guitar Used: "Lucille"
Rolling Stone magazine ranked King the 3rd "Greatest Guitarist
of All Time" in 2003
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Career
Recording years
B. B. King arrived in Memphis for the first time in 1946 to work as a musician, but after a few months of hardship he left, going back to Mississippi. There he decided to prepare himself better for the next visit and returned to Memphis two years later. Initially he worked at the local R&B radio channel WDIA as a singer. In 1949, he began recording songs under contract with Los Angeles-based RPM Records. Many of King's early recordings were produced by Sam Phillips, who later founded Sun Records. King was also a disc jockey in Memphis, where he gained the nickname "Beale Street Blues Boy", later shortened to "B. B." Before his RPM contract, B. B. had debuted on Bullet Records by issuing the single "Miss Martha King" (1949), which got a bad review in Billboard magazine and did not chart well.
In the 1950s, B. B. King became one of the most important names in R&B music, amassing an impressive list of hits including "You Know I Love You," "Woke Up This Morning," "Please Love Me," "When My Heart Beats like a Hammer," "Whole Lotta Love," "You Upset Me Baby," "Every Day I Have the Blues," "Sneakin' Around," "Ten Long Years," "Bad Luck," "Sweet Little Angel," "On My Word of Honor," and "Please Accept My Love." In 1962,B.B. King signed to ABC-Paramount Records, which was later absorbed into MCA Records, and then his current label, Geffen Records.
In November 1964, King recorded the Live at the Regal album at the Regal Theater in Chicago, Illinois.
King's first success outside the blues market was his 1969 remake of Roy Hawkins' tune "The Thrill Is Gone." King's version became a hit on both pop and R&B charts, which was rare for an R&B artist. It also gained the number 193 spot in Rolling Stone's Top 500 Songs Of All Time. He gained further rock visibility as an opening act on The Rolling Stones much-ballyhooed 1969 American Tour. King's mainstream success continued throughout the 1970s with songs like "To Know You Is to Love You" and "I Like to Live the Love."
Going mainstream
The 1980s, 1990s and 2000s saw King recording less and less. Yet throughout this time he maintained a highly visible and active career, appearing on numerous television shows and performing 300 nights a year. In 1988 King reached a new generation of fans with the single “When Love Comes To Town,” a collaborative effort between King and the Irish band U2 (on their Rattle and Hum album). In 2000, King teamed up with guitarist Eric Clapton to record Riding With the King. In 1998 B. B. King appeared in "The Blues Brothers 2000" playing the part of the lead singer of the Louisiana Gator Boys, along with Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Koko Taylor, and Bo Diddley.
In 2003, King shared the stage with the rock band Phish in New Jersey, performing three of his classics and jamming with the band for over 30 minutes.
In June 2006, King was present at a memorialization of his first radio broadcast at the Three Deuces Building in Greenwood, Mississippi, where an official marker of the Mississippi Blues Trail was erected.
B. B. King also made an appearance at the Crossroads Guitar Festival put on by Eric Clapton. On the DVD he plays "Paying The Cost To Be The Boss" and "Rock Me Baby" with Robert Cray, Jimmie Vaughan, and Hubert Sumlin.
In June 2006, a groundbreaking was held for a new B. B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola, Mississippi. The museum is scheduled to open September 13, 2008.
Farewell tour
Aged 80 at the time, on March 29, 2006, King played at the Sheffield's Hallam Arena. This was the first date of his UK and European farewell tour. He played this tour supported by ex-shredder/rocker turned bluesman Gary Moore, with whom King has previously toured and recorded, including the song "Since I Met You Baby". The British leg of the tour ended on April 4 with a final UK concert at Wembley Arena.
In July King went back to Europe, playing twice (July 2nd and 3rd) in the 40th edition of the world famous Montreux Jazz Festival and also in Zürich at the Blues at Sunset on July 14th. During his show in Montreux at the Stravinski Hall he jammed with Joe Sample, Randy Crawford, David Sanborn, Gladys Knight, Lella James, Earl Thomas, Stanley Clarke, John McLaughlin, Barbara Hendricks and George Duke. The European leg of the Farewell tour ended in Luxembourg on the 19th of September 2006 at the D'Coque Arena (support act: Todd Sharpville).
In November and December, King played six times in Brazil.
During a press conference on November 29th in São Paulo, a journalist asked King if that would be the actual farewell tour. He answered: "One of my favorite actors is a man from Scotland named Sean Connery. Most of you know him as James Bond, 007. He made a movie called "Never Say Never Again."
On July 28th, 2007, B. B. King Played at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival with 20 other guitarists to raise money for the Crossroads Center, Antigua for addictive disorders.
Legacy
Over 52 years B. B. King played at least 15,000 performances.
He has made guest appearances in numerous popular television shows, including The Cosby Show, The Young and the Restless, General Hospital, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Sesame Street, Married With Children and Sanford and Son.
King is the subject of a biography, B.B. King: There is Always One More Time, by the noted New York-based music writer David McGee.
Personal life
B. B. King is a licensed pilot, a known gambler, a vegetarian, non-drinker, and non-smoker. King has lived with Type II Diabetes for over twenty years and is a visible spokesman in the fight against the disease, appearing in advertisements for diabetes-management products.
On January 26, 2007, while on tour, King was hospitalized in Galveston, Texas due to a low-grade (100.4°F) fever after a recent bout of influenza. He was released on January 27, after an overnight stay. He resumed his touring on January 30 in Texas and gave another 30 performances in the US.
His favorite singer is Frank Sinatra. In his biography King speaks about how he was, and is, a "Sinatra nut" and how he went to bed every night listening to Sinatra's classic album In the Wee Small Hours. King has credited Sinatra for opening doors to black entertainers who weren't given the chance to play in "white dominated" venues. Sinatra got B. B. King into the main showrooms in Vegas during the 1960s.
Each year, during the first week in June, a B. B. King homecoming festival is held in Indianola, Mississippi.
Famed Delta Blues artist Bukka White is King's first cousin.
Boxer Sonny Liston was King's uncle.
It is reported that he has fathered 15 children.
Philanthropy
King is a proponent of music education for children. In 2002, he signed on as an official supporter of Little Kids Rock; a nonprofit organization that provides free musical instruments and free lessons to children in public schools throughout the U.S.A. He sits on the organization's board of directors as an honorary member.
Lucille
One of his trademarks is "Lucille", the name he has given to his guitars since the 1950s after he escaped a fire at a juke joint he was playing in. The fire was started by two men who were fighting over a woman named "Lucille". During their fight, they knocked over the bucket of burning kerosene used for heat. When King escaped the building, he realized that he had left his guitar in the burning building. He ran back inside to get it and after learning of what happened, he named his guitar "Lucille" to remind himself not to do it again.
By his own admission, he cannot play chords very welland always relies on improvisation, never thinking what to play beforehand.
Videography
- The Electric B.B. King - His Best (1960)
- Great Moments with B.B. King (1981)
- The King of the Blues: 1989 (1988)
- Got My Mojo Working (1989)
- King of the Blues (Box Set, 1992)
- Why I Sing the Blues (1992)
- Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: B.B. King; (2003)
- Ultimate Collection (2005)
- B.B. King: Live (2008)
Honors and awards
- On May 27, 2007, King was awarded an honorary doctorate in music by Brown University.
- On December 15, 2006, President George W. Bush awarded King the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- In 2004, he was awarded an honorary Ph.D from the University of Mississippi and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music awarded him the Polar Music Prize, for his "significant contributions to the blues".
- King was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1990.
- He was officially inducted 1987 into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, becoming one of the first artists to be honored by the museum.
- Grammy Awards - King was given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. As of 2006, he has won 14 Grammy Awards, of which nine have been the Grammy award for Best Traditional Blues Album: in 2006 (for B.B. King & Friends: 80), 2003 (for A Christmas Celebration of Hope), 2001 (for Riding with the King), 2000 (for Blues on the Bayou), 1994 (for Blues Summit), 1992 (for Live at the Apollo), 1991 (for Live at San Quentin), 1986 (for My Guitar Sings the Blues) and 1984 (for Blues 'N' Jazz). In 1982, he won the Grammy for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording (for There Must Be a Better World Somewhere). The Grammy for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk was last given in 1986; the Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album was first given in 1983. In 1997, he won a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance (with other artists, for "SRV Shuffle"). In 1971, he won the Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance (for "The Thrill is Gone"). A Grammy Hall of Fame Award was given to "The Thrill is Gone" in 1998, an award given to recordings that are at least 25 years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance."
- King was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors in 1995. This is given to recognize "the lifelong accomplishments and extraordinary talents of our Nation's most prestigious artists."
Quotes
- "About 15 times, a lady has said: 'It's either me or Lucille.' That's why I've had 15 children by 15 women."
- "Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but no one wants to die to get there!"
- When asked what he'd do differently, could he live his life over: "I would have finished high school
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