Admiration mutual for King, Clapton

by Rick Ruggles World-Herald Staff Writer
Posted April 3, 2007

The Mississippi-born black man and the white fellow from England have little in common other than their guitar-playing prowess.

But B.B. King, a blues legend, and rock 'n' roll star Eric Clapton have admired each other for years, performed together and collaborated on an album, "Riding With the King."

Both were playing this weekend in Omaha. Clapton performed Saturday night at the Qwest Center Omaha, and King plays tonight at the Holland Performing Arts Center.

Asked Saturday what he has in common with Clapton, King said: "I guess playing guitar and breathing."

King nevertheless said he considers Clapton a good friend. They met 40 years ago in New York.

"I think he's done much more to help me than I him," King said, speaking by phone from Springfield, Mo., where he performed Friday.

That might not be mere modesty. King and other great blues players, such as Muddy Waters, gained far wider acceptance when rock performers such as Clapton, Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones and John Lennon of the Beatles began talking in the 1960s about the influence the blues masters had had on their music.

Clapton said in the liner notes of "Riding With the King," which he and King released in 2000: "This is something that we have been talking about for a very long time and that I have been dreaming about all my life. B.B. is my hero, always has been. The fact that we can go on the same album together made that dream come true."

King said he was one of the opening acts for a Rolling Stones concert on the East Coast many years ago. Afterward, a woman and her teenage children walked up to him. "We never heard of you, but we really enjoyed you on stage," King recalled her saying. She asked whether he had made any records. By that time, he said, he had made many.

He tells the story, he said, not to make the woman seem silly but to illustrate the kind of exposure he received by opening for the Rolling Stones.

King said there is no plan for Clapton to make a visit onstage tonight. "I didn't even know he was there (in Omaha) until you told me."

"I personally think that he's No. 1 as a guitarist - a rock 'n' roll guitarist - and respect him for it," King said. "And he plays blues better than most of us." Asked to rank himself and Clapton, King repeated the preceding statement.

King, 81, used to play more than 300 gigs a year. Now he does about 150. Clapton, who turned 62 Friday, became a rock superstar in the 1960s with two British bands, the Yardbirds and Cream. His style has evolved, but his reputation as a tremendous guitar player has continued.

Clapton could not be reached for comment last week.

King said he was happy to give interviews. "Until my later years, nobody wanted to know what I thought about anything," he said. "I guess they're trying to get me before I've lost all my marbles."