B. B. King
Musician
1925-09-16 – 2015-05-14
B. B. King was an American blues musician, singer, and songwriter widely known as one of the most influential guitarists in blues history. His recording career and performances helped shape electric blues in the 20th century.
Quotes by B. B. King
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I don't think anybody steals anything; all of us borrow.
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Growing up on the plantation there in Mississippi, I would work Monday through Saturday noon. I'd go to town on Saturday afternoons, sit on the street corner, and I'd sing and play.
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Even now, at 82 years old, if I don't learn something every day, you know what I think? It's a day lost. Now, I don't practice every day. I just take the guitar, swear at it. But I should be swearing at myself. But I fool with music. I'm doing something musically all the time. And my ears are wide open for anything I can hear.
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The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.
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Blues is a tonic for whatever ails you. I could play the blues and then not be blue anymore.
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I've said that playing the blues is like having to be black twice. Stevie Ray Vaughan missed on both counts, but I never noticed.
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If T-Bone Walker had been a woman, I would have asked him to marry me. I'd never heard anything like that before: single-string blues played on an electric guitar.
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I don't have a favorite song that I've written. But I do have a favorite song: 'Always on My Mind,' the Willie Nelson version. If I could sing it like he do, I would sing it every night. I like the story it tells.
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When we went into World War II, I was a tractor driver then. I drove tractors on the plantation. So when they start calling people my age, 18, up, I was one they called.
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My dad died, I think, at 87. So I'll be lucky if I make 87. But in a lot of cases, the younger people live longer than their parents. And they know more. My dad used to tell me he ate the hog from his rooter to his tooter. So do I when I'm not trying to lose weight.
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Nobody loves me like my mother and she could be jivin' too.
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