BB King Biography

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Riley B. King, better known by his stage name B B King was a blues singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer from the United States. Many following blues electric guitar players were influenced by his sophisticated style of soloing, which included fluid string bending, shimmering vibrato, and staccato picking. King was dubbed "the single most important electric guitarist of the final half of the twentieth century" by AllMusic.

BB King Early Life

Riley B. King was born on the Berclair cotton plantation near Itta Bena, Mississippi, on September 16, 1925, to sharecroppers Albert and Nora Ella King. He believed Indianola, Mississippi, to be his hometown. In BB King early life (four year old), his mother left him for another man, he was reared by his maternal grandmother, Elnora Farr, in Kilmichael, Mississippi.

King sang in the gospel choir at Elkhorn Baptist Church in Kilmichael when he was younger. Because of its music, King was drawn to the Pentecostal Church of God in Christ. During worship, the local clergyman played a Sears Roebuck Silvertone guitar. King learned his first three chords from the minister. He appears to have bought his first guitar for ＄15.00 when he was 12 years old, however another account claims he was given it by Bukka White, his mother's first cousin (King's grandmother and White's mother were sisters).

The inaugural broadcast of "King Biscuit Time" was on KFFA in Helena, Arkansas, in November 1941. It was a blues radio broadcast from the Mississippi Delta. While on a plantation break, King listened to it. He wanted to be a radio musician after becoming a self-taught guitarist.

King left Kilmichael in 1943 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 Greenwood, Mississippi's WGRM radio station.

A portrait of B B King holding his guitar and Evelyn Young playing saxophone appears on a poster of B.B. King and Bill Harvey and Orchestra. In 1946, King travelled to Memphis, Tennessee, with Bukka White. For the following ten months, White took him in. However, King returned to Mississippi shortly afterward, where he determined to better prepare himself for the next visit, and two years later, in 1948, he returned to West Memphis, Arkansas. He began to build an audience by performing on Sonny Boy Williamson's radio show on KWEM in West Memphis. King's performances resulted in regular appearances at the Sixteenth Avenue Grill in West Memphis, as well as a ten-minute slot on Memphis radio station WDIA. The radio commercial was so successful that it was developed into the Sepia Swing Club.

He worked as a singer and disc jockey at WDIA, where he earned the moniker "Beale Street Blues Boy," which he later abbreviated to "Blues Boy," and then to B.B. T-Bone Walker was the first person he met there. "Once I heard him for the first time, I knew I'd have to have myself," King explained. Short of stealing, I had to have one!

BB King Life History

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, King is widely regarded as one of the most influential blues artists of all time, gaining the moniker "The King of the Blues" and being one of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with Albert King and Freddie King, none of whom are blood related). Throughout his musical career, King worked relentlessly, performing more than 200 concerts each year on average until he was in his 70s. He performed in 342 performances in 1956 alone.

King grew up on a cotton plantation near Itta Bena, Mississippi, and eventually worked at an Indianola cotton gin. In church, he was drawn to music and the guitar, and he began his career in juke joints and on local radio. He later lived in Memphis, Tennessee, and Chicago, and travelled widely throughout the world as his celebrity rose. King died on May 14, 2015, in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the age of 89.

What Does BB in BB King Name Stands For?

The legend behind the bluesman's unique moniker is long and winding. Riley King, a kid who was born in terrible poverty in rural Mississippi in 1925, escaped to Memphis after breaking the chimney on his employer's tractor, an accident for which he eventually returned to pay.

King began busking for change on Beale Street in Memphis, following in the footsteps of his cousin, bluesman Bukka White. The blossoming bluesman quickly garnered a following for his unique voice and the way he played his Lucille guitar on Sonny Boy Williamson's radio show KWEM in Memphis.

This was an excellent location for Riley King to be heard. Many of Williamson's former radio show King Biscuit Time musicians, including Robert Nighthawk, Elmore James, and Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, performed. His burgeoning reputation led to a ten-minute show on Memphis radio station WDIA, which later became B.B.'s Sepia Swing Club.

As a guitarist and radio DJ, King earned the moniker "Beale Street Blues Boy," which he later abbreviated to "Blues Boy." In an interview with Ebony magazine, B.B. King said, "Memphis and Beale Street were for me the college of hard knocks, the college of learning." This is where I received my formal education.” B.B. King was Beale Street's most famous alumnus by the time he died in May of 2015. He'd played over 15,000 shows, received 15 Grammy Awards, dozens of honours, including the Medal of Freedom, and a number of Blues Trail Markers.

His remains were returned to Beale Street in Memphis, where tens of thousands of people had gathered to mourn him. The parade began at the B.B. King's Blues Club on Beale and 2nd, the legendary institution named after Beale's biggest star. On Highway 61, King's body went through the Mississippi Delta, eventually resting at the B.B. King Center. They “see that his burial is kept clean” at the Martin Luther King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center. “I guess you can tell I'm the old man by looking at me,” King once quipped. BB King is my name.”

Personal Life of BB King

From November 1946 to 1952, King was married to Martha Lee Denton, then from 1958 to 1966, he was married to Sue Carol Hall. The tremendous demands imposed by King's 250 concerts a year have been blamed for the demise of both marriages. He is said to have fathered 15 children with a variety of women. Following his death, three more people have come forward to claim King as their biological father. 

Despite the fact that neither of his marriages produced children, and doctors determined that his sperm count was too low to conceive children, King never denied paternity to any of the 15 who claimed it, and was generous in funding college tuitions and establishing trust funds, according to biographer Charles Sawyer. In May 2016, King's 11 surviving children filed a lawsuit against the appointed trustee of his estate, which is estimated to be worth  ＄30 million to  ＄40 million. Several of them also went public with claims that King's business manager, LaVerne Toney, and personal aide, Myron Johnson, poisoned him to death. There was no sign of poisoning in the autopsy reports. Johnson has filed a defamation claim against the accusing family members, including his own sister, Karen Williams. Other children have brought cases against King's music estate, which is still up for grabs.

In 1990, King was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. He was a high-profile spokesman in the fight against diabetes, having lived with the disease for almost 20 years. King was an FAA-certified private pilot who learnt to fly in 1963 at Lansing, Illinois' Chicago Hammond Airport. He flew to concerts frequently, but in 1995, his insurance company and manager requested that he only travel with another certified pilot. As a result, around the age of 70, he quit flying.

Frank Sinatra was King's favourite singer. He described himself as a "Sinatra addict" who went to bed every night listening to Sinatra's famous album In the Wee Small Hours, according to his memoirs. During the 1960s, Sinatra arranged for King to perform at the city's most prestigious nightclubs.He credited Sinatra with providing opportunities for black entertainers who had previously been denied the opportunity to perform in "white-dominated" venues.

B.B. King was mentioned among hundreds of artists whose records were supposedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire by The New York Times Magazine on June 25, 2019.

Career

• On Beale Street, King was a member of the blues scene. He was a member of the Beale Streeters, which included Bobby Bland, Johnny Ace, and Earl Forest.

• King began recording songs with RPM Records, a Modern subsidiary situated in Los Angeles.

• King's recording contract was followed by tours across the United States, including appearances in large theatres in cities like Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, and St. Louis, as well as numerous appearances in small clubs and juke joints across the South.

• "3 O'Clock Blues" was his first Billboard Rhythm and Blues chart number one.

• In the 1950s, B.B. King established himself as one of the most important names in R&B music, with hits such as "You Know I Love You," "Wake 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,"

• King signed with ABC-Paramount Records, which was bought by MCA Records later on.

• As the opening act for the Rolling Stones' 1969 American tour, King received even more exposure among rock fans.

• His version of the song "The Thrill Is Gone," which was a smash on both the Pop and R&B charts, earned him a Grammy Award in 1970.

• In 2004, he received the international Polar Music Prize, which honours artists for "outstanding achievements in the creation and advancement of music."

Did You Know?

• As a child, King sang in church choruses. His uncle, a preacher, taught him basic guitar chords, and he only played religious music at home.

• During World War II, he volunteered in the army but was discharged because he drove a tractor, which was a necessary home front profession.

• Patty King, King's daughter, was among the detainees at a Gainesville, Florida, correctional facility where he gave a concert.

• King was nominated for 30 Grammy Awards and won 15 of them, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award.