B.B. King

Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known by the stage name B.B. King, is an American blues musician, singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No. 6 on its 2011 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time (previously ranked No. 3 in the 2003 edition of the same list), and he was ranked No. 17 in Gibson's "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time. King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and is considered one of the most influential blues musicians of all time, earning the nickname "The King of Blues", and one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with Albert King and Freddie King).  King is also known for performing tirelessly throughout his musical career appearing at 250-300 concerts per year until his seventies. In 1956 it was noted that he appeared at 342 shows. King continues to appear at 100 shows a year.

King was born in a cabin on a cotton plantation outside of Berclair, Mississippi, to Albert King and Nora Ella Farr on September 16, 1925.  In 1930, his father left the family, and his mother married another man. King was raised by his maternal grandmother Elnora Farr in Kilmichael, Mississippi.

As a kid, King sang in the gospel choir at Elkhorn Baptist Church in Kilmichael. It seems that at the age of 12, he purchased his first guitar for $15.00, although another source indicates he was given his first guitar by Bukka White, his mother's first cousin (King's grandmother and White's mother were sisters). In 1943, King left Kilmichael to work as a tractor driver and play guitar with the Famous St. John's Quartet of Inverness, Mississippi.

In 1946, King followed Bukka White to Memphis, Tennessee. White took him in for the next ten months. In 1948, he performed on Sonny Boy Williamson's radio program on KWEM in West Memphis, where he began to develop an audience and got a ten-minute spot on the Memphis radio station WDIA, working as a singer and disc jockey, gaining the nickname Beale Street Blues Boy, which was later shortened to Blues Boy and finally to B.B.  

In 1949, King began recording songs with Los Angeles-based RPM Records. Many of King's early recordings were produced by Sam Phillips, who later founded Sun Records. Before his RPM contract, King had debuted on Bullet Records by issuing the single "Miss Martha King" (1949), which did not chart well

King assembled his band; the B.B. King Review, under the leadership of Millard Lee. By his admission, King cannot play chords well and always relies on improvisation. In the winter of 1949, King played at a dance hall in Twist, Arkansas. To heat the hall, a barrel half-filled with kerosene was lit, a fairly common practice at the time. During a performance, two men began to fight, knocking over the burning barrel and the hall burst into flames.  Evacuating the building, King realized he had left his guitar inside the burning building and re-entered the blaze to retrieve his beloved instrument, a Gibson hollow electric. The next day, King learned that the two men were fighting over a woman named Lucille. King named that first guitar Lucille, as well as every guitar he owned since that experience, as a reminder never again to do something as stupid as run into a burning building for a replaceable guitar.

1956 became a record-breaking year, with 342 concerts booked. The same year he founded his record label, Blues Boys Kingdom, with headquarters at Beale Street in Memphis. In the 1950s, B.B. King became one of the most important names in R&B music.   In 1962, King signed to ABC-Paramount Records, which was later absorbed into MCA Records.

King won a 1970 Grammy Award for the song "The Thrill Is Gone". 

King was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980, and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. In 2004 he was awarded the international Polar Music Prize, given to artists "in recognition of exceptional achievements in the creation and advancement of music, and in 1990 was awarded the Presidential Medal of the Arts and the Medal of Freedom in 2008

King has been married twice, to Martha Lee Denton, 1946 to 1952, and to Sue Carol Hall, 1958 to 1966. Both marriages ended because of the heavy demands made on the marriage by King's 250 performances a year.  It is reported that he has fathered 15 children and, as of 2004, had 50 grandchildren.  He has lived with Type II diabetes for over 20 years and is a high-profile spokesman in the fight against the disease.

He has won a total of 15 Grammy awards and was given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987.

The last eight shows of King's 2014 tour were canceled because of health problems caused by complications from high blood pressure and diabetes. On May 14, 2015, at the age of 89, he died in his sleep from vascular dementia caused by a series of small strokes as a consequence of his type 2 diabetes. Two of his daughters alleged that King was deliberately poisoned by two associates trying to induce diabetic shock; an autopsy showed no evidence of such.

King's body was flown to Memphis on May 27, 2015. A funeral procession went down Beale Street, with a brass band marching in front of the hearse while playing "When the Saints Go Marching In". Thousands lined the streets to pay their last respects. His body was then driven down Route 61 to his hometown of Indianola, Mississippi. He was laid in repose at the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center, in Indianola, for people to view his open casket. The funeral took place at the Bell Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Indianola, on May 30. He was buried at the B.B. King Museum.

(BB King at Penn's Landing, Philadelphia mid-1990s)