The King is dead...

[Rikadyn]

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-32747861

[Jason]

RIP

89 is a good run though.

[Crazed_Insanity]

[tigeraid]

Like Johnny Cash, this man was metal before metal existed. Hangin' 'em high for the King.

[Yw-slayer]

Damn, was just listening to Deuces Wild in the car. He kept it real.

[21Kid]

RIP

89 is a good run though.

yeah

[speedpimp]

Damn. Twenty plus years ago I had a BB King/Bobby "Blue" Bland live cassette that, at the time, was probably one of the best live albums I've ever heard.
RIP to King, Bland and Solomon Burke.

[George]

RIP Mr. King.

I got to see him once at the aptly-named King Street Festival in Charleston SC in the 1980s. There was a whole bunch of stuff going on there that day, so it wasn't the traditional concert where the audience is there to watch the performance as the main activity. His band was set up on a raised stage that, thinking back, was probably a flatbed trailer - the big kind that a semi pulls. Still, glad to say I was there and got to see and hear one of the greats in person. Even back then, he was very famous.

I heard a funny quote from him on NPR recently, from an interview with Terri Gross from the 1990s. The conversation went something like this:

TG: You started out playing gospel, right? What made you switch to blues?

BB: Yes, I played gospel, and every time I did people would come up to me and say nice things about my singing and playing, but they'd never drop any money in my hat. But people who requested blues songs often dropped money in my hat, so I played more and more blues.

Obviously not exact quotes, but that was the gist of it.

And as a Fender fan, I should point out that before BB went to the dark side and started playing Gibson guitars (boo! hiss!), he played a Fender Esquire (which was/is a one-pickup version of a Fender Telecaster).

[Conman]

B.B. was from right down the road in Indianola, MS. They have a nice museum for him, and blues in general. He always came to the annual homecoming festival they put on up until last year, when health issues kept him away. He will be buried back in Indianola from what I read. He was a legend, an innovator, an ambassador, and an all around great man. He was the last of a breed of bluesmen that shaped the music of today.