The Man
B.B. has mixed traditional blues, jazz, swing, mainstream pop and jump into a unique
sound. His singing is richly melodic, both vocally and in the "singing" that comes from
his guitar. In B.B's words, "When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing
orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille. I'm trying to get people to see that we are our
brother's keeper, I still work on it. Red, white, black, brown, yellow, rich, poor, we all
have the blues. From my own experience, I would say to all people but maybe to young
people especially black, white or whatever color, follow your own feelings and trust
them; find out what you want to do and do it, and then practice it every day of your
life and keep becoming what you are despite any hardships and obstacles you meet."

Now in his 80th year, B.B. King has taken his music to fans in over 90 countries and
has been honored by presidents, kings, fellow musicians and fans. Each year he
returns to his hometown and performs a benefit concert for the people of Indianola,
Mississippi. Says King, now an international music icon, of his yearly homecoming
concert played in a small Delta city park before a crowd of black and white, young
and old, “This is the high point of my year.”

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