Hospice care. Those are two words I hate to hear.

This is probably a good time to rally good thoughts and prayers for BB.

My fondest BB King memory is of a show that I didn't get to attend. I've always wanted to meet him to relay the story.

In 1973 I was working as a stock/bag boy in a Birmingham grocery store. We usually carried groceries to the customers car. Sometimes we got tips - usually a quarter or some change. I carried out an order for a lady who gave me two tickets for the BB King show at Joe Namath's Restaurant (Bar and Grill).

I was jazzed to get these tickets. At the age of 16, I was already a huge BB King fan.

My best friend and I showed up at Namath's club wearing t-shirts and jeans and being 16 years old. We were turned away at the door. The was, after all a night club.

We got a couple of 6 packs (a perk of working at a grocery store 😉 ) and sat in an alley and listened to Live at Cook County Jail about 3 times through.

While not the "father of the blues" by any means, BB King probably did more to popularize the form than any other performer. Had there been no BB King - I wonder if the Allman Brother's Band would've ever taken shape.

I got BB King in my heart right now.

I saw BB in 1978 in Lake Tahoe....just chilling...saw him a few times after later in his life....always a BB

Prayers for BB

Paying the cost for being the boss

I only saw BB once…at the Filmore East in 1970. The first act was Taj Mahal, who was great. BB came out and blew the roof of the place. Just amazing.
Then the featured act came out, John Mayhal. He was reprising his Live at The Fillmore album. Although he was good, he couldn't get the crowd going like BB did.

Mitch

This is so sad. God Bless Him. 🙁

After reading about this last night i put on my vinyl copy of Live At The Regal and played (attempted to at least) along.

The first time i saw B.B. I got to write a review of a B.B./Buddy show in the spring of 2010. http://abc13.com/archive/7282822/ Was one of those nights he talked more than he played, but still an awesome experience.
Then a couple months later my wife and I were in Chicago for a weekend celebrating our anniversary and B was playing at the House of Blues. I eventually talked her into getting tickets for the show when we were at the HOB store. Because we spent money at the store and had dinner there, we got to go in a separate line before doors opened, we were maybe a dozen people back in line, so thought we'd be pretty close. When we went inside everyone in front of us spread out across the front row, so we walked right up to center stage and were second row right in front of BB for the show! And he was on fire that night too. Took a few requests from the crowd (probably because he played more songs than normal, so went through the usual set list. One of the requests was All Over Again too, which is one of my favorites from him). Such an amazing experience to be right there watching him from so close. Got a pick from him that night too, handed it right to me.

[Edited on 5/2/2015 by jdaunt]

Sad to read this.

Going to see Clapton tonight with BB in my thoughts.

I meant tomorrow night.

One of the things I love the most about BB King is his guitar playing. He plays in a very similar way to Duane Allman (or maybe I should say it's the other way around) in that there is a lyrical elequence and tone that is unmatched. I always wished he had put out an album that was more focused on his solos. Seems to me that Duane owes A LOT of his style to BB King.

I got to see him once and he didn't play a lot of guitar but when he did it was fantastic. After seeing the ABB near every year since 90 and a lot of other great players, I feel like those all-too-brief solos I saw BB King do were as close to seeing Duane Allman as I have ever gotten. Just a beautiful player.

God bless him and Godspeed

"Live in Japan."

Fantastic stuff. Recorded in 1971 at the height of the "play the helloutoftheguitar" era!!!!

I always wished he had put out an album that was more focused on his solos.

live in cook county jail...

live in cook county jail...

Live at cook county jail

Thank you BB