B. B. King

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.

I never met a woman I didn’t like. I love ’em all, in their different ways.

I’ve known people that was a part of a family and always feel that the family liked everyone else but them. That hurts, and that’s as deep a hurt as you can possibly get. I’ve known people that would have problems with their love life. This is kind of how blues began – out of feeling misused, mistreated. Feeling like they had nobody to turn to. Blues don’t necessarily have to be sung by a person that came from Mississippi as I did, because there are people having problems all over the world.

The minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.

I like jazz, rock n’ roll, some hip hop – I can’t think of any music I don’t like.

I would sit on the street corners in my hometown of Indianola, Mississippi, and I would play. And, generally, I would start playing gospel songs. People would come by on the street – you live in Time Square, you know how they do it – they would bunch up. And they would always compliment me on gospel tunes, but they would tip me when I played blues.

It’s either hip or it ain’t.

I went through a lot of mental pains and anguish about choosing between jazz and classical. I realized that where I functioned was where I should be, and where I functioned was in jazz, so that was it.

In Europe, they like everything you do. The mistakes and everything. That’s a little bit too much.

Jazz will endure just as long people hear it through their feet instead of their brains.

Jazz music is collective creativity.

I just remember always trying to emulate Dinah Washington, hanging out in my bedroom closet.

Sometimes you need to stand with your nose to the window and have a good look at Jazz.

You don’t want to play like B. B. King. You want to be you. So what you do is listen to players you like, and try to “borrow” a little bit from each guy. You don’t try to sound exactly like the other guy, you just add the bits to your vocabulary. It’s like learning to read or write.

I developed in my head that I’m never any better than my last concert or the last time I played, so it’s like an audition each time. You get nervous just before going onstage. I still have that, but I think it’s more like concern. You’re concerned about the people – like meeting your in-laws for the first time.

Any particular style of playing which represents an authentic way of musical feeling is genuine expression.

The blues fitted in with the early 60s, the social way of life at the time.

I really feel like I made it a great record. I really feel good about it. In this day and age to make a record that you say, ‘This is different,’ that’s a tough nut. I did it by accident but it got done. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I know how to do it.

If you can’t get your songs to people one way, you have to find another.

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.

My first relationship to any kind of musical situation is as a listener.