B.B. King is a singular blues guitarist. He is instantly recognizable in a genre of music that has for hundreds of years relied on generally the same chord structure and patterns. Why? Because B.B.

As I drive my rented Dodge Hornet south on Highway 61 across the flat Mississippi Delta, the region’s famous native son B.B. King croons “Why I Sing the Blues” on the radio. Music that sprung from ...

B.B. King, born Riley B. King, was one of the most influential and celebrated blues musicians of all time. From his roots as a sharecropper’s son, working in the cotton fields of Mississippi, he rose ...

B.B. King, the King of the Blues, would have turned 100 on Sept. 16. Most Americans know his name, his primacy among blues legends, and the singular identity of his beloved hollow-body Gibson guitar ...

Sept. 16, 2025, will be a milestone in the history of Memphis and American music, as it marks what would have been B.B. King’s 100th birthday. To all who ever heard him play, King was the one true ...

* B.B. King, born Riley B. King, was one of the most influential and celebrated blues musicians of all time. From his roots as a sharecropper’s son, working in the cotton fields of Mississippi, he ...

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He was born in Berclair, Mississippi, with the name Riley B. King, a last name that would — though he wouldn't know it as a small child — point to the great things he would do. Riley was born on a ...

From ZZ Top to Jimmy Page to Susan Tedeschi, B.B. King has been a significant influence on rock and blues artists who came after him. Yet, when we think of the most ubiquitous musicians of either ...