Some people say that blues singers are always cryin' in their beer. But you know what? I don't drink.
I don't think it's meant for man to know everything at once.
This year, I will do something like 180, 190 concerts. But that's a little less than usual. I had been averaging 230 or 240. In 1956, I did 342 one-nighters. But I was young then, and I was doing something I love to do. I didn't pay any attention until my agents told me at the end of the year: "B. B., do you know how many dates you did?" Even I was surprised at that.
I've been married twice. Most women would rather not be married to a traveling blues singer.
My last divorce was in '68. What made it come to a head was a promise. See, I had promised her that the next year I wouldn't work as much. But then I got in trouble with the IRS and I had to continue working just as much to pay the government. So she said I lied, which is something I never did. I tried to explain it to her, that I was forced to do what I had to do by circumstances. But of course she's tellin' me, "You promised!"
A while back, a teacher brought me some book reports from some kids who'd read my book. Most all of them got A's. Some of them were saying, "Well, he loved women," and that's no lie; I do. But one young lady, she wrote, "He's a woman freak. I think I would be scared to be in a room with him by myself." I want that girl to know that I'm not that bad; I do have control. But it's no lie. I love women most of all.
It's not that I want to sleep with all of them. I'd like to clarify that. It's like seeing a rose. A rose is a rose. It's pretty. But that doesn't mean you want to snap it off and put it on your lapel. I have an excellent medical team. There's Dr. Viagra, Dr. Cialis, and nurse Levitra. They keep me, er, straight.
The guitar I'm playin' is Lucille number sixteen. There's actually a seventeen; they made it for my seventieth birthday. But I never take it out on the road, 'cause it's got my picture on it. I like to sit it up at my house and just look at it.
The younger players, my hat goes off to them. Because they are always coming up with ideas that I never thought of. I sometimes used to kind of hate myself for that: Why didn't I think of it?
I used to have a jones for gambling. But thirty years ago I moved to Las Vegas, and it cured my habit. My former manager taught me something: He said when you go to a casino and you want to gamble, write a check. It's one of the smartest things I've ever been told. Because when you get back that canceled check and you see how much money you have screwed up — you could've given it to your family, you could've given it to your girlfriend. You could've just walked over to the Mississippi River and thrown it in there. That's what cured me, realizing how much I was throwing away.
Water from the white fountain didn't taste any better than from the black fountain.
Back when we was in school in Mississippi, we had Little Black Sambo. That's what you learned: Anytime something was not good, or anytime something was bad in some kinda way, it had to be called black. Like, you had Black Monday, Black Friday, black sheep. . . . Of course, everything else, all the good stuff, is white. White Christmas and such. You got to pay attention to the language, hear what it's really saying.
Growing up, I was taught that a man has to defend his family. When the wolf is trying to get in, you gotta stand in the doorway. He has to get through you first before he gets into the house to get your family. I'm one of those guys who wants to be in that door.
I'm a country boy. I love nature. I don't need all the fancy things, the fancy automobiles, the fancy this and that. I have a nice car, a Mercedes. And then I have an old El Camino truck that I'm crazy about. I like to get in that truck and go up in the hills near where I live, in Vegas, and take my camera. That to me is heaven, being out in nature, taking pictures of the wildlife.
With the U. S. government, I don't know. I don't know what they see. When I say they, I mean the president and his people, the Senate and everybody. I don't know what they see. They're not going to tell you everything. So many things we read, we just don't know the whole truth about. What's really going on? Who knows?
America might be a little eager to go to war. We don't consider the cost of what this is going to do to us in the long run.
I don't have a favorite song that I've written. But I do have a favorite song: "Always on My Mind," the Willie Nelson version. If I could sing it like he do, I would sing it every night. I like the story it tells. It go, I may not have written you — he's talking about a lady — when maybe I should have. Or maybe I didn't take you to dinner, didn't call you when I should have, or didn't love you as I should have. But you was always on my mind. I felt that way a lot in my life. I think every person feels it. That's one of the things about being an entertainer. What we do — it's just sharing the thoughts that many people have. You go to see a movie, and you sit up and cry — it's because something is happening in there that just done happen to you or somebody you know. It's the same thing with what I do. Don't matter if you're gay or straight, black or white, you still have the same problem. It's love. It's universal.
I don't like anybody to be angry with me. I'd rather have friends. If there's any static or whatever that causes somebody to be mad at me about something or to think I'm at fault about something, I'll get on my knees to apologize. I just believe that life is good like that.
Interviewed by Mike Sager
― TRG (TRG), Friday, 23 December 2005 20:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― Haikunym (Haikunym), Friday, 23 December 2005 21:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― musically (musically), Friday, 23 December 2005 21:48 (eighteen years ago) link
I wish I liked his music more.
― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 23 December 2005 21:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― flat span druthers, Friday, 23 December 2005 21:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Friday, 23 December 2005 22:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― TRG (TRG), Saturday, 24 December 2005 02:32 (eighteen years ago) link
Great interview BTW.
― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Saturday, 24 December 2005 11:30 (eighteen years ago) link
Frampton's Guitar Circus Featuring Peter Frampton and B.B. King
Summer 2013 US tour
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 26 February 2013 21:34 (eleven years ago) link
B.B. King, 88, is heckled at an awkward St. Louis performance
B.B. King has spent decades singing “The Thrill Is Gone.” Perhaps at long last it actually is.Make no mistake: King is a living legend, a national treasure, and the sobriquet “king of the blues” is not mere wordplay, but a title earned. To be in the same room as him and breathe the same air is an honor and a privilege.But for the majority of King’s concert at the Peabody Opera House on Friday night, the sizeable crowd could have been excused for thinking that’s all they were going to get.King’s shows in recent years have featured as much talk as playing, and the 88-year-old musician is obviously slowing down, just as anyone would. But the balance slipped way out of proportion at this show. King sat center stage and spoke, sometimes in non sequiturs, sometimes inaudibly. He flirted with women in the first few rows and made a few ribald comments, without apology. “I like to have fun,” he said. “I love who I am and what I do.”For a while, the audience was with him, laughing at his jokes and asides. But it was 45 minutes into the show before King performed anything resembling a song. Even then, his playing was shaky. He explained that he and the band had been off for two months, causing him to lose confidence.After a capable run-through of “Rock Me Baby,” he played “You Are My Sunshine” and asked the crowd to sing along. The house lights came up and King began noticing individuals and waving to them. As the song went around again and again, nattering on for — and this is not a misprint — 15 minutes, audience members began to heckle, yelling out requests or simply calling for King to “play some music!” Some walked out.King sensed trouble, but he couldn’t understand the things being yelled at him. Eventually, the music stopped and the show ground to an intensely uncomfortable halt.Finally, King realized what it would take to save the day, and his guitar sounded the clarion notes that begin his indelible hit, “The Thrill Is Gone.”That moment provided a hint of the brilliance King’s performances can achieve. But it was the only one. He completed just two more songs.One is loath to disparage a legend, especially one that is well into his ninth decade. But King is surrounded by a large band and a surfeit of handlers, and they are fair game.Whoever decided the house lights should be up for almost half the show, distracting King from performing, needs to reconsider, and soon.And when King was lost for a lyric or simply what to do next, the band seemed more than content to stand respectfully by and watch him (metaphorically) die.It was enough to give those in attendance the blues. And not in a good way
Make no mistake: King is a living legend, a national treasure, and the sobriquet “king of the blues” is not mere wordplay, but a title earned. To be in the same room as him and breathe the same air is an honor and a privilege.
But for the majority of King’s concert at the Peabody Opera House on Friday night, the sizeable crowd could have been excused for thinking that’s all they were going to get.
King’s shows in recent years have featured as much talk as playing, and the 88-year-old musician is obviously slowing down, just as anyone would. But the balance slipped way out of proportion at this show. King sat center stage and spoke, sometimes in non sequiturs, sometimes inaudibly. He flirted with women in the first few rows and made a few ribald comments, without apology. “I like to have fun,” he said. “I love who I am and what I do.”
For a while, the audience was with him, laughing at his jokes and asides. But it was 45 minutes into the show before King performed anything resembling a song. Even then, his playing was shaky. He explained that he and the band had been off for two months, causing him to lose confidence.
After a capable run-through of “Rock Me Baby,” he played “You Are My Sunshine” and asked the crowd to sing along. The house lights came up and King began noticing individuals and waving to them. As the song went around again and again, nattering on for — and this is not a misprint — 15 minutes, audience members began to heckle, yelling out requests or simply calling for King to “play some music!” Some walked out.
King sensed trouble, but he couldn’t understand the things being yelled at him. Eventually, the music stopped and the show ground to an intensely uncomfortable halt.
Finally, King realized what it would take to save the day, and his guitar sounded the clarion notes that begin his indelible hit, “The Thrill Is Gone.”
That moment provided a hint of the brilliance King’s performances can achieve. But it was the only one. He completed just two more songs.
One is loath to disparage a legend, especially one that is well into his ninth decade. But King is surrounded by a large band and a surfeit of handlers, and they are fair game.
Whoever decided the house lights should be up for almost half the show, distracting King from performing, needs to reconsider, and soon.
And when King was lost for a lyric or simply what to do next, the band seemed more than content to stand respectfully by and watch him (metaphorically) die.
It was enough to give those in attendance the blues. And not in a good way
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 7 April 2014 19:09 (ten years ago) link
Saw him last summer and it was pretty sad, though not quite that bad.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 7 April 2014 19:39 (ten years ago) link
Read elsewhere that some folks thought the reviewer was being too mean, but I thought it was fair. BB King shows are expensive, and while no one likely expects him to be as good as he was decades ago, they want a little more than the above.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 15:48 (ten years ago) link
King's attorney is reporting that B.B. has passed away.
― Love, Wilco (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 15 May 2015 05:55 (eight years ago) link
RIP
― bae sremmurd (monotony), Friday, 15 May 2015 06:03 (eight years ago) link
:(
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 15 May 2015 06:09 (eight years ago) link
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6312208/bb-king-dead-blues-legend
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 15 May 2015 06:11 (eight years ago) link
I've spent a lot of time the last couple weeks listening to B.B. King and I've come to especially love that 1969-73 period the most (maybe you noticed I posted "Hummingbird" on This Is My Jam earlier today). I also watched the recent documentary about him entitled 'The Life of Riley' on Hulu the other day (http://www.hulu.com/watch/691662), which you should absolutely watch sometime in the near future. Even yammering Bono couldn't ruin it.
As about 20 different people in the doc noted, you could tell B.B. was playing guitar with just one note. That's all you needed to hear and that's some rarefied air. Other musicians, painters, actors, artists of any kind dream of being so singular.
Good night, B.B. Good night, Lucille.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 15 May 2015 06:25 (eight years ago) link
I named my first born Lucille.
I am at such a loss right now.
― Hydroelectric New Deal Demiurge (B.L.A.M.), Friday, 15 May 2015 06:37 (eight years ago) link
Playing Live at the Regal right now. GOT DAMN
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 15 May 2015 07:23 (eight years ago) link
He's the first musician I ever remember consciously hearing as a kid thanks to my parents, always had personal significance to me.
― meaty, desperate, and honest about the world we live in (ultros ultros-ghali), Friday, 15 May 2015 10:36 (eight years ago) link
Got Newport and Indianola Mississippi Seeds within the last year. I'm always picking up on artists right before they pass. RIP BB.
― DavidLeeRoth, Friday, 15 May 2015 12:46 (eight years ago) link
― Johnny Fever, Friday, May 15, 2015 3:23 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Me too. Such a wonderful record. Gonna put on Midnight Believer next.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 15 May 2015 13:00 (eight years ago) link
thread title change
― 龜, Friday, 15 May 2015 13:07 (eight years ago) link
rip
I saw him in the mid-80s on my university campus and it was the first show I'd attended where the audience was an equal mix of white undergraduates and middle-aged African Americans ... it seems very naive now, but I was startled to see the ladies who fed us in the cafeteria shouting for B.B. and to realize they understood and appreciated him a whole lot better than I did ... an educational moment for sure
― Brad C., Friday, 15 May 2015 13:42 (eight years ago) link
I need to listen again to his album with Bobby Bland. RIP
― curmudgeon, Friday, 15 May 2015 13:48 (eight years ago) link
The last time I saw him, at least a decade ago, the climatic numbers were free jazz blues, but still in the pocket. And in the late 70s, he did a couple albums with the Crusaders, def not just smoove, however. Going back to the early 60s, a good section on him in Charles Keil's Urban Blues. He went a lot of places. Chronicles of the King, by a reporter who interviewed him several times:http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2015/05/15/mississippi-mourns-bb-king/27360285/
― dow, Friday, 15 May 2015 13:48 (eight years ago) link
I saw him twice, once in the 90s and once in the early oughts, and he was already leaning pretty heavily on his backup guitarist and coasting through some pretty short sets. Really wish I could have seen him in his prime. RIP.
― Competent Cracker Barrel Manager (Dan Peterson), Friday, 15 May 2015 14:40 (eight years ago) link
Saw him once, though it was as much a lecture/demonstration/q&a as a concert:http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1990-02-19/news/9001140942_1_blues-style-king-standards-musicians
It was pretty fascinating, and to be in the same room as that sound was an amazing feeling.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 15 May 2015 14:54 (eight years ago) link
I think the only time I saw hin live was a short set at Radio City Music Hall in '97, in between a screening of the When We Were Kings doc and an appearance by Muhammad Ali. RIP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svoPEQHzR7s
― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Friday, 15 May 2015 15:08 (eight years ago) link
I saw him at least three times. The first time was at Cornell in December, totally by surprise. The woman who I was dating at the time took us. That was an amazing night, to be sure.
The second was at a theater in Baltimore in the summer of 1996, where that same woman and I were two of possibly 8 non-black people in the audience. The rest of the audience was a 30 year reunion of Poly High School. And it was double bill - BB and Bobby Bland. THAT was one of the top five best shows I've ever had the privilege of being at. Amazing.
The third was at his annual Indianola, MS homecoming concert and BBQ. I had lived in Indianola for about two years, and my younger brother and I got to see him play for his hometown. Again, amazing.
I put on Live at the Regal this morning, and plugged in my electric guitar, and realized that I was not only able to play along with his guitar parts, but that I was able to play his vocal parts, largely from memory. I don't really know if I'll ever be able to fully explain the profound effect his playing and overall musicianship has had on me, but I'm glad it's woven so completely into who I am and how I approach music.
I knew this day was coming, but I had no idea how it would effect me. Not overly sad - mostly grateful, and somewhat melancholy, but I know I learned a lot from him, and I'm thankful as hell for that.
― Hydroelectric New Deal Demiurge (B.L.A.M.), Friday, 15 May 2015 17:07 (eight years ago) link
*That was December, 1995.
― Hydroelectric New Deal Demiurge (B.L.A.M.), Friday, 15 May 2015 17:08 (eight years ago) link
@ericburdon
I first met #bbking in 1965 @ApolloTheater Years and years of beautiful blues. You'll be remembered. RIP BB King'
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CFFEvRPUUAA9Tak.jpg
― dow, Friday, 15 May 2015 22:33 (eight years ago) link
Vernon Reid@vurnt22
So Jon Tiven & I were in the studio waiting for Mr King to show up-He came in, sharp as a tack; jacket & tie! I was in a denim shirt(no tie)
Mr. King looked me up & down & quipped "I KNOW we didn't come here for VACATION". I believe I shrank down into my shoes SCHOOLED...
By the the 3rd take, Mr King's jacket was off, his tie was loosened, and we had a GREAT session! He played & sang MAGNIFICENTLY. INCREDIBLE!
To put that story in context, #BBKing was the FIRST Black man I saw play electric guitar on TV (Ed Sullivan)- an INDELIBLE IMPRESSION ON ME.
― dow, Friday, 15 May 2015 22:39 (eight years ago) link
so awesome
i am loving the stories that are coming out
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 16 May 2015 00:34 (eight years ago) link
yes, very much so. I never saw this thread before, that 2006 piece is fantastic.
― sleeve, Saturday, 16 May 2015 03:23 (eight years ago) link
Check out today's Google Doodle!
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 16 September 2019 05:47 (four years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/UIa73cM.jpg
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 26 May 2022 09:58 (one year ago) link
nothing he is dead!
― xzanfar, Thursday, 26 May 2022 12:40 (one year ago) link