B.B. King with Lucille

Riley B. King, guitarist, singer, songwriter, was known as B.B. King. A self-taught guitarist, he began his career in juke joints and local radio. During one show in Arkansas, a brawl broke out and caused a fire. He said he later found out that the two men were fighting over a woman named Lucille. He named the guitar Lucille, as a reminder not to fight over women or burning buildings. 

He won a 1970 Grammy Award for his version of the song "The Thrill Is Gone. Recognized as the greatest blues guitarists of all-time, B.B was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, the King of Blues died at the age of 89 in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 14, 2015. His music lives on and now you can be part of the B.B. King REVIVAL! 

Long Live the KING!

For more than half a century, Riley B. King – better known as B.B. King – has defined the blues for a worldwide audience. Since he started recording in the 1940s, he has released over fifty albums, many of them classics. 

He was born September 16, 1925, on a plantation in Itta Bena, Mississippi, near Indianola. In his youth, he played on street corners for dimes, and would sometimes play in as many as four towns a night. In 1947, he hitchhiked to Memphis, TN, to pursue his music career. Memphis was where every important musician of the South gravitated, and which supported a large musical community where every style of African American music could be found. B.B. stayed with his cousin Bukka White, one of the most celebrated blues performers of his time, who schooled B.B. further in the art of the blues.

Over the years, B.B. has developed one of the world’s most identifiable guitar styles. He borrowed from Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker and others, integrating his precise and complex vocal-like string bends and his left hand vibrato, both of which have become indispensable components of rock guitarist’s vocabulary. His economy, his every-note-counts phrasing, has been a model for thousands of players, from Eric Clapton and George Harrison to Jeff Beck. B.B. has mixed traditional blues, jazz, swing, mainstream pop and jump into a unique sound. In B.B.’s words, “When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.” Lucille was his beloved guitar.

B.B. continued to tour extensively, averaging over 250 concerts per year around the world. With popular tunes such as “The Thrill Is Gone,” “3 O’Clock Blues,” “Downhearted,” and “Sweet Little Angels,” B.B. King recorded numerous albums, accumulated 15 Grammys, received Kennedy Center Honors, and was even awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He graced stages at major venues around the globe, and his international fame is a large part of the reason the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center was born, as many fans of blues music yearn to know more about one of the forefathers of the genre. Learn more online at bbking.com.