BB King passes away: Lesser known facts about the legendary singer

He won a Grammy Hall of Fame Award for his 1998 song, ‘The thrill is gone’ and today when legendary blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter BB King has passed away, the song’s lyrics seem to resonate with the singer’s fans. Indeed, the thrill is gone! One of the hardest working musicians of all times, BB King is credited for doing 200-300 shows a year. Even when he was in his ‘70s, he would enthusiastically perform for his fans and keep the music go on. As King passes away at 89, we take a look at some lesser known facts about the performer…

Born in Itta Bena, Mississippi to a family of poor sharecroppers, BB King’s story has been that of rags-to-riches. He was christened as Riley B King upon birth. As a young boy, he would toil in cotton and corn fields and milk 20 cows a day on Flake Cartledge’s farm. Life was no cakewalk for King as during his early years, he had faced a lot of violence and racism. King studied in a school that was three miles away from his home. It was basically a one-room schoolhouse.

BB King was very young when he first encountered a guitar. He was once caught touching the instrument and his uncle, who was a preacher, started teaching him basic guitar chords. He would only perform religious music at home during those days. At the corner of church, King started singing and playing the blues. While the young King took a lot of pleasure in doing music, it also brought him good money. He has been quoted as saying that he could earn more in one night singing on the corner than he could in one week by working in the cotton field.

With only $3 in his pocket, BB king hitchhiked to the city of Memphis and started living with his cousin Bukka White, who was an established blues player. King soon found himself playing at the local scene. For every album he made, he was paid four cents. The story behind BB’s stage name is also an interesting one. During the early ‘50s, King worked as a disc jockey on the Memphis black station, WDIA. It was here that the people started calling him, ‘Beale Street Blues Boy.’ ‘Blues Boy’ was shortened to BB and Riley B King became BB King.

BB King has claimed to have fathered 15 children during his lifetime with different women. He married Martha Lee Denton in 1942 but the two parted ways after eight years of marriage in 1950. King tied the knot with another woman named Sue Carol Hall, in 1958, but this time too, the marriage could not work out for more than eight years and the two got divorced in 1966.

While BB King’s married life was not so pleasant, his ardent love for music kept him going. He had so much love for his guitar that he even risked his life for it once. It was at a concert in Arkansas that a fire broke out and King put his life at risk to go back and get his guitar. As a practice during those times, a kerosene filled barrel was lit to heat the hall. Two men began to fight during the performance, knocking over the burning barrel and sending burning fuel across the floor. It was the next day that the King discovered that the men were actually fighting for a woman named ‘Lucille.’ To remind himself never to do anything that foolish, King named his Gibson guitar as ‘Lucille.’ Interestingly, during the ‘80s, Gibson officially named their ES-355 guitar as ‘Lucille’ as a token of respect to ‘The King of Blues’.

BB King was awarded his 15th Grammy award in 2009 for his album One Kind Favor. He was also inducted into both the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone magazine placed him behind only guitarists Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman in its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.

BB King was once asked about what he thought about his rags-to-riches story, to which the late singer said that he did not know how to answer the question. King, who had a great passion for his work, added that there was so much to do even that day. He said that he was grateful for many things that had happened to him till then.