B.B. King is a blues guitarist, singer and songwriter from Berclair, United States, born in 1925 and active until his death in 2015. He is associated with blues, blues rock, electric blues, soul and soul blues, and is widely identified with the electric guitar sound that shaped modern blues and blues-rock.

Early life and first broadcasts

Born Riley B. King in a cabin on a cotton plantation outside Berclair, Mississippi, he is raised in Kilmichael, Mississippi by his maternal grandmother after his father leaves the family. As a child he sings in the gospel choir at Elkhorn Baptist Church and gets his first guitar in the early 1940s, either by buying it or being given it by Bukka White. In 1943 he leaves Kilmichael to work as a tractor driver and play with the Famous St. John's Quartet of Inverness, Mississippi, performing at churches and on WGRM in Greenwood.

He later follows Bukka White to Memphis, then returns to Mississippi before settling in West Memphis, Arkansas, where he appears on Sonny Boy Williamson’s radio programme on KWEM. Those broadcasts lead to regular bookings and a short radio spot on WDIA in Memphis, which expands into the Sepia Swing Club. On air he is first called the Peptikon Boy, then the Beale Street Blues Boy, later shortened to Blues Boy and finally B.B.

Recording career

King begins recording in 1949, first for Bullet Records with the single “Miss Martha King”, then under contract to RPM Records in Los Angeles. Sam Phillips produces many of these early sessions. His first hit on the R&B charts is “Three O’Clock Blues” in 1951, and through the 1950s he becomes one of the most important names in R&B with songs 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”.

He signs to ABC-Paramount Records in 1962, later part of MCA Records and then Geffen Records. He records Live at the Regal at the Regal Theater in Chicago in 1964, an album that becomes one of his best-known live recordings. His wider breakthrough comes with “The Thrill Is Gone”, a 1968 remake of a Roy Hawkins song that reaches both pop and R&B charts and wins a Grammy Award in 1970. Other mainstream successes in the 1970s include “To Know You Is to Love You” and “I Like to Live the Love”. From 1951 to 1985 he appears on Billboard’s R&B charts 74 times.

Lucille, bands and performance style

King names his guitar Lucille after a 1949 fire in a dance hall in Twist, Arkansas, where he runs back into the building to recover it after a fight causes the hall to burn. The name becomes attached to every guitar he later owns. He is known for improvisation and says he cannot play chords well, relying instead on melody and phrasing. He uses a Fender Telecaster on many early RPM recordings and later becomes best known for Gibson ES-355 variants. Gibson launches the B.B. King Lucille model in 1980, and a special run of “80th Birthday Lucille” guitars is made in 2005.

He forms his own band, the B.B. King Review, led by Millard Lee, with players including Calvin Owens, Kenneth Sands, Lawrence Burdin, George Coleman, Floyd Newman, Millard Lee, George Joyner, Earl Forest and Ted Curry. Onzie Horne later works as an arranger on his compositions. He also records and performs with B.B. King and His Orchestra and with the Beale Streeters, among other collaborative groups listed with his name.

Collaborations, tours and later work

King keeps recording and performing across the decades, including collaborative material with Eric Clapton and a version of “Since I Met You Baby” recorded and toured with Gary Moore. In 1988 he records “When Love Comes to Town” with U2. In 2000 he releases Riding With the King with Eric Clapton. He also contributes to Cyndi Lauper’s Memphis Blues and records with Big K.R.I.T. on the rapper’s debut album.

He appears as the lead singer of the Louisiana Gator Boys in The Blues Brothers 2000, alongside Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Koko Taylor and Bo Diddley. He performs at major festivals and events including Montreux, Bonnaroo, the Chicago Blues Festival, Monterey Blues Festival, Glastonbury, the Kennedy Center Honors, Mawazine, Crossroads Guitar Festival, the Byblos Festival and New Orleans Jazz Festival. He also plays at the 1988 Republican National Convention and at a White House blues performance in 2012.

Recognition and legacy

Rolling Stone ranks him third among the hundred greatest guitarists of all time. He is inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He receives the Polar Music Prize in 2004, the Presidential Medal of the Arts in 1990 and the Medal of Freedom in 2008. He is also inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame in 2008.

King records and performs for much of his life, with more than 15,000 performances over 64 years and up to 300 appearances a year in later decades. He founds Blues Boys Kingdom in Memphis in 1956 and later opens a chain of B.B. King’s Blues Club venues, beginning on Beale Street in 1991 and later in Los Angeles, New York, Connecticut, Nashville, West Palm Beach, Las Vegas and Orlando. He also supports Little Kids Rock and sits on its honorary board. His television and film appearances include The Cosby Show, Sesame Street, Married... with Children, Sanford and Son, Touched by an Angel, The Young and the Restless, General Hospital, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Spies Like Us and Cow and Chicken.

Personal life

King is married twice, to Martha Lee Denton and Sue Carol Hall. He is reported to have fathered 15 children and had 50 grandchildren. He lives with type II diabetes and becomes a public spokesman on the disease. He is also an FAA-licensed private pilot, learning to fly in 1963 before later stopping flying. His favourite singer is Frank Sinatra, whom he credits with helping open clubs to Black performers.