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B. B. King

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Template:Infobox musical artist Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.Template:NbspB. King, was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shimmering vibrato, and staccato picking that influenced many later electric guitar blues players.<ref>Komara, Edward M. Encyclopedia of the Blues, Routledge, 2006, p. 385.</ref><ref name="Dahl"/> AllMusic recognized King as "the single most important electric guitarist of the last half of the 20th century".<ref name="Dahl"/>

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and is one of the most influential blues musicians of all time, earning the nickname "The King of the Blues", and is referred to as one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with Albert King and Freddie King, none of whom are related).<ref name="hal">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="gibson">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="cbs">Template:Cite web</ref> King performed tirelessly throughout his musical career, appearing on average at more than 200 concerts a year into his 70s.<ref name="halloffame" /> In 1956 alone, he appeared at 342 shows.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, he was attracted to music and taught himself to play guitar beginning his career in juke joints and on local radio. King later lived and performed in Memphis and Chicago. As his fame grew, he toured the world extensively.

Early life

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Riley B. King was born on September 16, 1925,<ref name="Encyclopedia of the Blues">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> on a cotton plantation in Berclair named Bear Creek in Leflore County near the city of Itta Bena, Mississippi,<ref name="Dahl">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="hmdb">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="jazz"/> the son of sharecroppers Albert and Nora Ella King.<ref name="jazz"/> When he was four years old, his mother left his father for another man, so he was raised by his maternal grandmother, Elnora Farr, in Kilmichael, Mississippi,<ref name="jazz"/> then in Lexington.<ref name="hmdb" /> As a teen, he moved to Indianola which he referred to as his hometown, later working at a cotton gin.<ref name = "Danchin">Sebastian Danchin, Blues Boy: The Life and Music of B.B. King, University Press of Mississippi, 1998, p. 1, Template:ISBN.</ref>

While young, King sang in the gospel choir at Elkhorn Baptist Church in Kilmichael. He was attracted to the Pentecostal Church of God in Christ because of its music. The local minister performed with a Sears Roebuck Silvertone guitar during services and taught King his first three chords.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Flake Cartledge, his employer in Kilmichael, bought him his first guitar for 15 dollars. Cartledge withheld money from King's salary for the next two months until he repaid the debt.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="jazz"/>

In November 1941, King Biscuit Time first aired, broadcasting on KFFA in Helena, Arkansas. It was a radio show featuring the Mississippi Delta blues. King listened to it while on break at the plantation. A self-taught guitarist, he then wanted to be a radio musician.<ref name="Defining">Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1943, King left Kilmichael to work as a tractor driver and play guitar with the Famous St. John's Gospel Singers of Inverness, Mississippi, performing at area churches and on WGRM in Greenwood.<ref name="nvlp3">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="ppg070125">Template:Cite news</ref> He served in the U.S. Army during World War II but was released after being ruled as "essential to the war economy" based on his experience as a tractor driver.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>B.B. King Fast Facts CNN. Retrieved February 22, 2023.</ref>

File:Poster of B.B. King and Bill Harvey (saxophonist) and Orchestra, featuring photos of B.B. King holding his guitar and Evelyn Young playing saxaphone. - 8049g557h files 92a57ed3-1d17-4a52-bda9-53dd48145101.jpg
Poster of B.Template:NbspB. King and Bill Harvey and Orchestra with a photo of King holding his guitar and Evelyn Young playing saxophone

In 1946, he followed Bukka White to Memphis, Tennessee. White took him in for the next ten months.<ref name="jazz"/> King returned shortly afterward to Mississippi where he better prepared himself for the next visit. Two years later, he returned to West Memphis, Arkansas. He performed on Sonny Boy Williamson's radio program on KWEM in West Memphis where he began to develop an audience. His appearances led to steady engagements at the Sixteenth Avenue Grill in West Memphis and later to a ten minute spot on the Memphis radio station WDIA.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The radio spot became so popular that it was expanded and became the Sepia Swing Club.<ref>Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture. Edited by Jessie Carney Smith. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, California. 2011. Template:ISBN, pp. 805–806.</ref>

He worked at WDIA as a singer and disc jockey where he was given the nickname "Beale Street Blues Boy", later shortened to "Blues Boy" and finally to "B.Template:NbspB."<ref>Note: "B.Template:NbspB." is normally written with periods.</ref><ref>History of Rock & Roll. By Thomas E. Larson. Kendall/Hunt, Dubuque, Iowa. 2004. Template:ISBN, p. 25.</ref><ref name=pc4/> It was there that he first met T-Bone Walker. King said, "Once I'd heard him for the first time, I knew I'd have to have [an electric guitar] myself. 'Had' to have one, short of stealing!"<ref>Dance, Helen Oakley; and B.B. King. Stormy Monday, p. 164.</ref>

Career

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1949–2005

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File:B.B. King Hamburg 1971.jpg
King on stage in Hamburg 1971
File:BBKingNY.jpg
King playing his favorite guitar, Lucille, in the 1980s

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, King was a part of the blues scene on Beale Street. "Beale Street was where it all started for me," he said. He performed with Bobby Bland, Johnny Ace and Earl Forest in a group known as the Beale Streeters.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

According to King and Joe Bihari, one of the founders of Modern Records and its subsidiaries, Ike Turner introduced King to the Bihari brothers while he was a talent scout for them.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Before his RPM contract, King had debuted on Bullet Records by issuing the single "Miss Martha King" (1949), which did not chart well. "My very first recordings [in 1949] were[sic] for a company out of Nashville called Bullet, the Bullet Record Transcription company," King recalled. "I had horns that very first session. I had Phineas Newborn on piano; his father played drums, and his brother, Calvin, played guitar with me. I had Tuff Green on bass, Ben Branch on tenor sax, his brother, Thomas, on trumpet, and a lady trombone player. The Newborn family were the house band at the famous Plantation Inn in West Memphis."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1949, King began recording songs under contract with Los Angeles-based RPM Records, a subsidiary of Modern. Sam Phillips, who later founded Sun Records, produced many of King's early recordings.

King assembled his band, the B.B. King Review, under the leadership of Millard Lee. The band initially consisted of Calvin Owens and Kenneth Sands (trumpet), Lawrence Burdin (alto saxophone), George Coleman (tenor saxophone),<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Floyd Newman (baritone saxophone), Millard Lee (piano), George Joyner (bass) and Earl Forest and Ted Curry (drums). King hired Onzie Horne, a trained musician, to be an arranger and assist him with his compositions. By his admission, King could not play chords well and always relied on improvisation.<ref>U2 Rattle and Hum DVD, 1988.</ref>

King supported his recordings by touring across the United States with performances in major theaters in cities such as Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, and St. Louis, as well as numerous gigs in small clubs and juke joints in the southern United States. During one show in Twist, Arkansas, a brawl broke out between two men and caused a fire. He left the building with the rest of the crowd but ran back in to get his guitar. He said he later learned 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 run into any more burning buildings.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

File:Twist AR BB king Marker 1.jpg
The story of a guitar named Lucille

Following his first Billboard Rhythm and Blues charted number one, "3 O'Clock Blues" (February 1952),<ref name="sawyer">Template:Cite web</ref> King became one of the most important names in R&B music in the 1950s, amassing an impressive list of hits<ref name=pc4>Template:Pop Chronicles</ref> 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". This led to a significant increase in his weekly earnings, from about $85 to $2,500,<ref>Kostelanetz 1997, p. 146.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> with appearances at major venues such as the Howard Theater in Washington and the Apollo in New York, as well as touring the "Chitlin' Circuit". 1956 became a record-breaking year, with 342 concerts booked and three recording sessions.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> That same year he founded his own record label, Blues Boys Kingdom, with headquarters at Beale Street in Memphis. There, among other projects, he was a producer for artists such as Millard Lee and Levi Seabury.<ref name = "Danchin"/> In 1962, King signed to ABC-Paramount Records, which was later absorbed into MCA Records (which itself was later absorbed into Geffen Records). In November 1964, King recorded the Live at the Regal album at the Regal Theater.<ref name="sawyer"/> King later said that Regal Live "is considered by some the best recording I've ever had ... that particular day in Chicago everything came together."<ref name=Kot>Template:Cite news</ref>

From the late 1960s, his new manager, Sid Seidenberg, pushed him into a different type of venue as blues-rock performers like Eric Clapton (once a member of the Yardbirds and Cream) and Paul Butterfield were bringing blues music to appreciative white audiences.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> King gained further visibility among rock audiences as an opening act on the Rolling Stones' 1969 American Tour.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He won a Grammy Award in 1970 for his version of the song "The Thrill Is Gone" <ref>Rees, Dafydd & Crampton, Luke (1991). Rock Movers & Shakers, ABC-CLIO, p. 287. Template:ISBN.</ref> which was a hit on both the Pop and R&B charts. Rolling Stone magazine listed it in the number 183 spot in their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

King was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2014.<ref name="halloffame">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2004, he was awarded the international Polar Music Prize which is given to artists "in recognition of exceptional achievements in the creation and advancement of music."<ref name="Polar Music Prize">Template:Cite web</ref>

From the 1980s to his death in 2015, he maintained a highly visible and active career, appearing on numerous television shows and sometimes performing 300 nights a year. In 1988, he reached a new generation of fans with the single "When Love Comes to Town", a collaborative effort with the Irish band U2 on their Rattle and Hum album.<ref name="sawyer"/> In December 1997, he performed in the Vatican's fifth annual Christmas concert and presented his trademark guitar "Lucille" to Pope John Paul II.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1998, King appeared in The Blues Brothers 2000, playing the part of the lead singer of the Louisiana Gator Boys along with Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Koko Taylor and Bo Diddley. In 2000, he and Clapton teamed up again to record Riding With the King which won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Discussing where he took the Blues, from "dirt floor, smoke in the air" joints to grand concert halls, King said the Blues belonged everywhere beautiful music belonged. He successfully worked both sides of the commercial divide, with sophisticated recordings and "raw, raucous" live performances.<ref name=Kot/>

2006–2014

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In 2006, King went on a farewell world tour although he remained active afterward.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The tour was partly supported by Northern Irish guitarist, Gary Moore, with whom King had previously toured and recorded. It started in the United Kingdom and continued with performances at the Montreux Jazz Festival and in Zürich at the Blues at Sunset. During his show in Montreux at the Stravinski Hall, he jammed with Joe Sample, Randy Crawford, David Sanborn, Gladys Knight, Leela James, Andre Beeka, Earl Thomas, Stanley Clarke, John McLaughlin, Barbara Hendricks and George Duke.<ref name="farewells">Template:Cite news</ref>

File:BB King onstage (Toronto, 2007).jpg
King at Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto, in May 2007

In June 2006, King was present at a memorial of his first radio broadcast at the Three Deuces Building in Greenwood, Mississippi where the Mississippi Blues Commission erected an official marker as part of the Mississippi Blues Trail. The same month, a groundbreaking was held for a new museum, dedicated to him,<ref name="King museum">Template:Cite web</ref> in Indianola, Mississippi.<ref name="Ross">John F. Ross "B.B. Gets His Own Museum," American Heritage, Winter 2009.</ref> The B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center opened on September 13, 2008.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In late October 2006, King recorded a concert album and video entitled B.B. King: Live at his B.B. King Blues Clubs in Nashville and Memphis. The video of the four night production featured his regular band and captured his shows as he performed them nightly around the world. Released in 2008, they were his first performances in over a decade to be documented with a live album release.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2007, King played at Eric Clapton's second Crossroads Guitar Festival<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and contributed the songs "Goin' Home", to Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino (with Ivan Neville's DumpstaPhunk)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and "One Shoe Blues" to Sandra Boynton's children's album Blue Moo, accompanied by a pair of sock puppets in a music video for the song.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In the summer of 2008, King played at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee where he was given a key to the city.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Later that year, he was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

File:Barack Obama singing in the East Room.jpg
President Obama and King singing "Sweet Home Chicago" on February 21, 2012

He performed at the Mawazine festival in Rabat, Morocco on May 27, 2010.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In June 2010, he played at the Crossroads Guitar Festival with Robert Cray, Jimmie Vaughan, and Eric Clapton.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He also contributed to Cyndi Lauper's album Memphis Blues which was released on June 22, 2010.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2011, King played at the Glastonbury Music Festival,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and in the Royal Albert Hall in London where he recorded a concert video.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Rolling Stone ranked him at No. 6 on its 2011 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.<ref name="roll_100G">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

On February 21, 2012, King was among the performers of "In Performance at the White House: Red, White and Blues" during which President Barack Obama sang part of "Sweet Home Chicago".<ref name="barack">Template:Cite web</ref> King recorded for the debut album of rapper and producer Big K.R.I.T. who also hails from Mississippi.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On July 5, 2012, King performed a concert at the Byblos International Festival in Lebanon.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

On May 26, 2013, he appeared at the New Orleans Jazz Festival.<ref name="nola">Template:Cite web</ref>

On October 3, 2014, after completing his live performance at the House of Blues in Chicago, a doctor diagnosed King with dehydration and exhaustion and the eight remaining shows of his ongoing tour had to be canceled. King did not reschedule the shows, and the House of Blues show would be the last before he died in 2015.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="bbking.com tour-update 2014-10-08">Template:Cite web</ref>

Equipment

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Template:For Template:Quote box

King used equipment characteristic of the different periods he played in. He played guitars made by various manufacturers early in his career. He played a Fender Esquire on most of his recordings with RPM Records.<ref>Burrows, Terry, The Complete Book of the Guitar, p. 111. Carlton Books Limited, 1998, Template:ISBN.</ref> Later, he was best known for playing variants of the Gibson ES-355.

In the September edition 1995 of Vintage Guitar magazine, early photos show him playing a Gibson ES-5 through a Fender tweed amp. In reference to the photo, King stated, "Yes; the old Fender amplifiers were the best that were ever made, in my opinion. They had a good sound and they were durable; guys would throw them in the truck and they'd hold up. They had tubes, and they'd get real hot, but they just had a sound that is hard to put into words. The Fender Twin was great, but I have an old Lab Series amp that isn't being made anymore. I fell in love with it because its sound is right between the old Fender amps that we used to have and the Fender Twin. It's what I'm using tonight."<ref name="auto">Template:Cite web</ref>

File:B.B. King in 2009.jpg
King at the 2009 North Sea Jazz Festival

He moved on from the larger Gibson hollow bodied instruments which were prone to feedback when played at high volumes to various semi-hollow models beginning first with the ES-335 and then on to a deluxe version called the ES-355 which used a stereo option.<ref name="auto"/> In 1980, Gibson Guitar Corporation launched the B.B. King Lucille model, an ES-355 with stereo options, a varitone selector, and fine tuners (neither of which he actually used ) and, at King's direct request, no f-holes to further reduce feedback. In 2005, Gibson made a special run of 80 Gibson Lucilles, referred to as the "80th Birthday Lucille", the first prototype of which they gave him as a birthday gift and which he used thereafter.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He used a Lab Series L5 2×12" combo amplifier and used this amplifier for a long time. Norlin Industries made them for Gibson in the 1970s and 1980s. Other popular L5 users are Allan Holdsworth and Ty Tabor of King's X. The L5 has an onboard compressor, parametric equalization, and four inputs. King also used a Fender Twin Reverb.<ref name=guitargear>Template:Cite web</ref>

He used his signature model strings "Gibson SEG-BBS B.B. King Signature Electric Guitar Strings" with gauges: 10–13–17p–32w–45w–54w and D'Andrea 351 MD SHL CX (medium 0.71mm, tortoiseshell, celluloid) picks.<ref name=guitargear />

Blues clubs

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File:BBKINGSignBealeStreet.JPG
Sign outside B.B. King's Blues Club on Beale Street, Memphis

In 1991, Beale Street developer John Elkington recruited King to open the original B.B. King's Blues Club in Memphis and in 1994, they launched a second club at Universal Citywalk in Los Angeles. A third club in New York City's Times Square opened in June 2000 but closed on April 29, 2018. Management is currently in the process of finding a new location in New York City.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Two more clubs opened, at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut in January 2002,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and in Nashville in 2003.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Another club opened in Orlando in 2007.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A club in West Palm Beach opened in the fall of 2009<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and an additional one, based in the Mirage Hotel, Las Vegas, opened in the winter of 2009.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Another opened in the New Orleans French Quarter in 2016.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Television and other appearances

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King made guest appearances on a number of popular television shows including: The Cosby Show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Young and the Restless, General Hospital, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Sesame Street,<ref name="SesameWorkshopNewsletter">Template:Cite news</ref> Married... with Children, Sanford and Son and Touched by an Angel.

From the mid-1980s until the mid-1990s, he appeared in several advertisements for McDonald's.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the early 2000s he also appeared in a campaign for Burger King.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2000, the children's show Between the Lions featured a singing character named "B.B. the King of Beasts" based on him.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

B.B. King: The Life of Riley, a feature documentary about him narrated by Morgan Freeman and directed by Jon Brewer, was released on October 15, 2012.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

His performance at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> appears in the 2021 music documentary Summer of Soul.

Personal life

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File:Publicity photo of B.B. King. - j9602118s files 7f3e5875-55ee-4389-8eb0-53e6b59f1df3 (cropped).jpg
Early publicity photo of King

King was married twice, to Martha Lee Denton, from November 1946 to 1952 and to Sue Carol Hall, from 1958 to 1966. He attributed their failure to the heavy demands of his 250 performances a year.<ref name="jazz"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It is said that he fathered 15 children with several women.<ref name="jazz">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Encyclopedia of the Blues"/> After his death, three more have come forward, claiming him as their father.<ref name="HR">Johnson, S. Battle Over B.B. King's Fortune. The Hollywood Reporter, June 3, 2016 (No. 17), pp. 61–63.</ref> Though neither of his marriages produced children, biographer Charles Sawyer wrote that doctors found his sperm count too low to conceive children,<ref>Sawyer, C. The Arrival of B.B. King: The Authorized Biography. Doubleday (1984), p. 221. Template:ISBN</ref> King never disputed paternity of any of the 15 who claimed it and by all accounts was generous in bankrolling college tuitions and establishing trust funds.<ref name="HR"/> In May 2016, the 11 surviving children initiated legal proceedings against his appointed trustee over his estimated $30 million to $40 million estate. Several of them also went public with the allegation that King's business manager, LaVerne Toney and his personal assistant, Myron Johnson had fatally poisoned him. Autopsy results showed no evidence of poisoning. A defamation suit filed by Johnson against the accusing family members (including his own sister, Karen Williams) is pending. Other children have filed lawsuits targeting his music estate which remains in dispute.<ref name="HR"/>

King was an FAA-certified private pilot and learned to fly in 1963 at what was then Chicago Hammond Airport in Lansing, Illinois.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>"You and Me with B.B. King." SIRIUS Channel 74. May 12, 2009.</ref> He frequently flew to gigs but in 1995 his insurance company and manager asked him to fly only with another certified pilot. As a result, at around the age of 70, he stopped flying.<ref name='Reuters/Billboard 2007-06-29'> Template:Cite news</ref>

King's favorite singer was Frank Sinatra. In his autobiography, he spoke about how he was a "Sinatra nut" and how he went to bed every night listening to Sinatra's classic album In the Wee Small Hours. During the 1960s, Sinatra had arranged for King to play at the main clubs in Las Vegas. He credited Sinatra for opening doors to black entertainers who were not given the chance to play in white dominated venues.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Philanthropy and notable campaigns

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In September 1970, King recorded Live in Cook County Jail during a time in which issues of racism <ref name="Back" /> and class in the prison system were prominent in politics. King also co-founded the Foundation for the Advancement of Inmate Rehabilitation and Recreation tying in his support for prisoners and his interest in prison reform.<ref name="Back">Back, Les. 2015. "How Blue Can You Get? B.B. King, Planetary Humanism and the Blues Behind Bars." Theory, Culture & Society 32 (7): 274.</ref> In addition to prison reform, King also wanted to use prison performances as a way to preserve music and songs in a similar way that Alan Lomax did.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In 2002, he signed on as an official supporter of Little Kids Rock, a nonprofit organization that provides free musical instruments and instruction to children in underprivileged public schools throughout the United States. He sat on the organization's honorary board of directors.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Diagnosed with diabetes in 1990,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> King was a high-profile spokesman in the fight against the disease.<ref name="farewells"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He appeared in several television commercials for OneTouch Ultra, a blood glucose monitoring device, beginning in the early 2000s. American Idol contestant Crystal Bowersox, who was diagnosed with diabetes at age six, would co-star with King in later commercials.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Death and funeral

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Template:Wikinews Template:Wikinews The last eight shows of his 2014 tour were canceled because of health problems caused by complications from high blood pressure and diabetes.<ref name="bbking.com tour-update 2014-10-08"/><ref name="OfficialCOD"/><ref name="cnn._B.B.">Template:Cite news</ref> On May 14, 2015, at the age of 89,<ref name="Defining"/> he died in his sleep from vascular dementia caused by a series of small strokes as a consequence of his type 2 diabetes.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Two of his daughters alleged that he was deliberately poisoned by two associates trying to induce diabetic shock;<ref name=Poison>Template:Cite news</ref> an autopsy showed no evidence of that.<ref name="OfficialCOD">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

His 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.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> He was laid in repose at the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola so people could view his open casket.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=news5>Template:Cite web</ref> The funeral took place at the Bell Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Indianola on May 30.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was buried at the B.B. King Museum.<ref name=news5/>

Discography

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Studio albums

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Accolades

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Awards and nominations

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Years reflect the year in which the Grammy was awarded, for music released in the previous year.

Grammy Awards
Year Category Work Result
1970 Best Male R&B Vocal Performance "The Thrill Is Gone" Template:Won
1981 Best R&B Instrumental Performance "When I'm Wrong" Template:Nom
1982 Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording "There Must Be a Better World Somewhere" Template:Won
1983 Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals "Street Life" Template:Nom
1984 Best Traditional Blues Recording Blues 'n Jazz Template:Won
1986 My Guitar Sings the Blues Template:Won
1991 Live at San Quentin Template:Won
1991 Best Country Collaboration with Vocals "Waiting on the Light to Change" Template:Nom
1992 Best Traditional Blues Album Live at the Apollo Template:Won
1994 Blues Summit Template:Won
1995 Best Country Collaboration with Vocals "Patches" Template:Nom
1997 Best Rock Instrumental Performance "SRV Shuffle" Template:Won
1999 Best Contemporary Blues Album Deuces Wild Template:Nom
2000 Best Traditional Blues Album Blues on the Bayou Template:Won
2001 Best Traditional Blues Album Riding with the King Template:Won
2001 Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals "Is You Is or Is You Ain't (My Baby)" Template:Won
2003 Best Traditional Blues Album A Christmas Celebration of Hope Template:Won
2003 Best Pop Instrumental Performance "Auld Lang Syne" Template:Won
2005 Best Traditional R&B Performance "Sinner's Prayer" (with Ray Charles) Template:Nom
2006 Best Traditional Blues Album B. B. King & Friends: 80 Template:Won
2009 Best Traditional Blues Album One Kind Favor Template:Won

Other awards

Year Association Category Work Result
1995 Country Music Association Album of the Year Rhythm, Country and Blues ("Patches" with George Jones) Template:Nom
2002 NAACP Image Awards Outstanding Performance in a Youth/Children's Series or Special Sesame Street Template:Nom
File:B.B. King Presidential Medal of Freedom.jpg
King receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George W. Bush, December 2006

Additional honors

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File:BB King pick.jpg
Commemorative guitar pick honoring "B.B. King Day" in Portland, Maine

See also

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References

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Further reading

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