Legend B.B. King put his mark on the blues
LAS VEGAS — B.B. King, whose guitar licks and vocals made him the idol of generations of musicians and fans while earning him the nickname King of the Blues, died Thursday at home in Las Vegas at 89.
Although he had continued to perform well into his 80s, the 15-time Grammy winner suffered from diabetes and had been in declining health during the past year. He collapsed during a concert in Chicago last October.
For most of a career spanning nearly 70 years, King was not only the undisputed king of the blues but a mentor to scores of guitarists, who included Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix, John Mayall and Keith Richards. He recorded more than 50 albums and toured the world well into his 80s.
King played a Gibson guitar he affectionately called Lucille with a style that included beautifully crafted single-string runs punctuated by loud chords, subtle vibratos and bent notes. His style was unusual. King didn’t like to sing and play at the same time, so he developed a call-and-response between him and Lucille.
A preacher uncle taught him to play, and he honed his technique in abject poverty in the Mississippi Delta, the birthplace of the blues.
“I’ve always tried to defend the idea that the blues doesn’t have to be sung by a person who comes from Mississippi, as I did,” he said in the 1988 book “Off the Record: An Oral History of Popular Music.”
“People all over the world have problems,” he said. “And as long as people have problems, the blues can never die.”
Born Riley B. King on Sept. 16, 1925, on a tenant farm near Itta Bena, Miss., King was raised by his grandmother after his parents separated and his mother died. He worked as a sharecropper for five years in Kilmichael, an even smaller town, until his father found him and took him back to Indianola.
B.B. King had 15 biological and adopted children. Family members say 11 survive.
