R.I.P. B.B. King

Two “King”s. Backstage at Ellis Auditorium, Memphis.

Legendary bluesman B.B. King has died at the age of 89. A long life and a six-decade career. He toured constantly, almost up until the very end. The news had come that his family had called in hospice a couple of weeks ago, so things did not look good.

There are so many amazing performances (as well as fruitful collaborations with other artists. I love his collaboration with Stevie Ray Vaughan.

B.B. King was interviewed for the PBS oral histories “American Roots Music,” and it’s a goldmine of great stuff. He was asked about Bo Diddley and Elvis and Little Richard and what that meant for him and other blues musicians. His response is eloquent.

I never thought of it that way because, see, Little Richard played some blues; Elvis — believe it or not — played some blues; all of these guys. And I wondered why they called them rock and roll. The only reason I could see was because they were white. I couldn’t see any other reason why they were rock ‘n roll, ’cause a lot of the black guys was doing the same thing they were doing. So the only difference was sort of like the records when we first started making records. They would have “race records,” you know, if the dude was black. That’s a black one right there. If it’s pop, that’s a white one right there, and that was the difference. But when rock ‘n roll started, in my opinion – I said in my opinion – Little Richard had been doing some of the same things I heard the Rolling Stones doing. Fats Domino had been out – his way, his style – but he was doing the same changes and progressions that these guys were doing. The only difference I saw was white and black. I don’t know if it was done because of prejudice. I didn’t think of it that way, but I thought of it “Okay, that’s a white guy there; he’s rock ‘n roll. That’s a black guy over there; he’s playing the blues.” ‘Cause they hadn’t, for some reason, thought of soul at the time. These guys obviously didn’t have any soul. They called guys like me rhythm and blues, so somewhere along the line I guess I lost my rhythm! [And I] wind up here – just the blues, you know. To answer your question, I didn’t think anything other than we had more [people] on the scene. The more, the merrier – especially when you started having the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and many guys like that. Would you believe that the Beatles helped open a lot of doors for blues players like myself?

Here’s one of my favorite live clips. Watch how he builds it. And listen to that guitar. One of the most eloquent guitars ever.

What will we do without B.B. King??

Rest in peace, sir!