Guest Book

Good afternoon. Here's a story about B.B. King (with Brother Duane mentioned) that I thought y'all might be interested in... The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS) HEADLINE: B.B. King By Billy Watkins, bwatkins@clarionledger.com 3rd 'Greatest Guitarist in History' By Billy Watkins B.B. King has heard something about some poll in Rolling Stone magazine, but he isn't sure what the fuss is all about. So a reporter from King's home state of Mississippi gives him the news: In a Sept. 18 special collector's issue, King was named the third-best guitar player in history, behind only Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman, ahead of everybody else who ever struck a chord. "Mmmmmph," he says by telephone from his Las Vegas office. "I think they made a mistake. I mean, I would think maybe I belong in the top 50. But in the top three? I'm grateful to them, but I wouldn't have put me there." Rolling Stone says the 78-year-old King "has become such a beloved figure in American music, it's easy to forget how revolutionary his guitar work was." It quotes Buddy Guy, who ranked No. 30 on the Top 100 list, as saying: "Before B.B., everyone played the (electric) guitar like it was an acoustic." Even after hearing that, King still contends that he should have been further down the list. "I've always been lazy when it comes to practicing," says King, who grew up in Indianola. "I usually try to play two or three times a week when I'm not touring, just to keep my fingers from getting sore. I don't have those big heavy calluses on my fingers like some do. "And I'm stupid when it comes to talking about the guitar. I don't know nothin' about no (alternate) tunings and all that. "I guess I'm like a lot of musicians. Sometimes when I play, the guitar feels like a nerve in my nervous system, like it's a deep-down part of me. Then other times I'll play and I finally just set the thing in the corner and swear at it. I don't play nothin' like I'd like to play. There's a sound I've been searching for all these years. I don't know what it is, but I'll know it when I hear it. "I guess what I'm saying is, when I really learn how to play, I'll let you know." Says Rolling Stone senior editor David Fricke: "I think he is being unreasonably modest. To me, putting him in the top three was a no-brainer." Riley B. King became interested in the guitar when he was 6 years old while listening to the Rev. Archie Fair pick and sing at the Sanctified Church of God and Christ in Indianola. He was 12 before he got one. "I worked for the Catlege family," King recalls. "Made $15 a month. I'd found an old red Stella (guitar) that a man would let me have for $15. So I asked Mr. Catlege if he'd buy it for me, and and take out half of it one month, the other half the next. And he did." King bought a book that showed him a few chords and how to tune it. Music was filling his ears from all directions. He loved - and still does - the sound of a steel guitar in a country song. "Ain't nothin' in the world prettier than that," King says. "It'll almost make me cry." And, of course, he loved the blues. The late Lonnie Johnson of New Orleans was his favorite. By the time he was 30, King was living in Memphis and had built a following of his own with classic hits such as You Upset Me Baby and Every Day I Have the Blues. But it wasn't until the early 1960s, when British groups like The Beatles and the Rolling Stones listed American blues artists as their greatest influences, that King began to get his due. "Those guys opened a lot of doors for us," says King, who has performed in 90 countries, including the then-Soviet Union. "And by 'us' I mean Little Milton, Bobby Bland, people like that. I imagine there were some white people in Mississippi who knew who we were, but not folks around the world. But when the British bands talked, white America listened. "I'll praise those boys forever. I congratulate them on being real people." King has won nine Grammy Awards. Two of his tunes, Sweet Little Angel and The Thrill is Gone, were selected among The Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock 'n' Roll. In 2000, he collaborated with Eric Clapton (No. 4 on Rolling Stone's list) on the CD Riding with the King. It sold more than 2 million copies and introduced a new generation of listeners to King's music. "I met Eric the first time he came to America," King says. "After a show, a bunch of us would get together and jam, and Eric sat in one night in New York. "For years, I wanted to record with him. One night, he was on Larry King's TV show and said he'd like to do a record with B.B. King. I called my manager and asked him to check it out. I told him, 'If it's true, I'm ready tomorrow.' My manager called, Eric meant it, and we started recording not long after that. "Eric is one of the good guys." You can hardly name a music legend whom King hasn't met or performed with. Janis Joplin. "Met her in the early '60s," he says. "I was playing in (Greenwich) Village in New York, and Janis was playing there with Big Brother and The Holding Company. She became one of my best friends." Elvis Presley. "My record company would book studio time down at Sun Records in Memphis, and Elvis would be in there rehearsing," King recalls. "I didn't know much about him. He was handsome, and he could sing and play. But I didn't think too much about it." Hendrix. "I knew Jimi before he got to be popular. He played in the rhythm section for Little Richard. When a bunch of guys would get together after a show, we'd talk about girls. All Jimi wanted to talk about was the guitar. He'd say, 'B, what do you think of this chord?' And he'd play it. I didn't think too much about him, either, at the time. But he was a great guitarist. Some people have that certain something, and he had it." Duane Allman. "Played with him in the early '60s at a racetrack down in Miami. He was good. I don't think he was better than Eric. But he was good." Beatles George Harrison and Ringo Starr. "I played with George one night in London. It was fun. Nobody was trying to burn anybody out. And I did an album called Live in London. Ringo played the drums on that." King regrets he never performed with another Beatle, John Lennon. "I was reading a magazine once and they asked him who he wanted to play the guitar like, and he answered 'B.B. King.' I nearly fell out of my chair." Nearly all of them are gone now. Joplin and Hendrix died of drug overdoses. A heart attack claimed Elvis. Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident. Harrison died of cancer. Ringo Starr keeps plugging along, touring with his All-Starr band. And so does King, who begins a tour Thursday in Memphis that will run through January and take him to 16 states. He appears to be holding his own in a battle with diabetes. "I'm hanging in pretty good," he says. "I try to do most of the things my doctor tells me to do. I knew Johnny Cash, and I understand he died of complications of diabetes. "I'm real fortunate. I don't have to walk on no stick or anything. I sit down to play, but I don't mind that." The father of 15 children, King lost his second-oldest last week. Barbara Clark Ellis, 55, died of a heart attack during dialysis at a Memphis hospital. "I'd never lost a child until now, and I'd always hoped and prayed that I'd go before they did," King says. "I guess the Good Lord saw it another way. "I was taught by my elders that you bury the dead and go on living. That's what I intend to do. But it hurts beyond belief."