Blues legend B.B. King would have celebrated his 100th birthday today, September 16th.
Riley B. King was born September 16th, 1925 in Indianola, Mississippi to sharecropper parents.
After working as a farmhand, he left for Memphis, Tennessee in 1946. Dubbed “The King of the Blues,” he began his career under the tutelage of his cousin Bukka White.
He was hired by WDIA as a disc jockey in 1948. Bullet Recordings recorded his first album in 1949, and that year, King signed a 10-year recording contract with RPM Records.
Though he’s best remembered for the 1970 crossover hit “The Thrill Is Gone,” King had an amazing 74 entries on the Billboard R&B chart. Other notable hits include “To Know You Is to Love You” and “Never Make Your Move Too Soon.” In 1965, B.B. King: Live at the Regal reached number-eight on the Billboard album chart.
King nicknamed his famous Gibson guitar “Lucille” after retrieving it from a barroom fire and nearly dying.
Two men were fighting over a woman named Lucille when they ignited the blaze. In 1982, Gibson began marketing a series of B.B. King-approved “Lucille” guitars. B.B. once said, “Lucille is real -- when I play her it's almost like hearing words, and of course, naturally I hear cries. I'd be playing sometimes and as I'd play, it seems like it almost has a conversation with me.”
His trademark guitar trill and original soulful music has inspired the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton.
In 1999, he and Clapton released a collaboration dubbed Riding With the King.
In 1988 he collaborated with U2 on "When Love Comes to Town" for their Rattle and Hum album.
King was diagnosed with diabetes in 1990 when he almost fell into a coma in Louisiana. He became a spokesman for One-Touch Ultra and filmed a National Diabetes Foundation ad.
B.B. King was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1984 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He won seven Grammys over his career, and he received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Yale University and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
King, who married and divorced twice, is survived by 15 children.