B. B. King

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

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.

Ignorance is bliss? That’s bull, far as I’m concerned. Because I was making a half a cent a side – one penny for a record. It’s like building buses, for example. If you built this bus for me and I didn’t know anything about it, you could charge me whatever I’d pay for it. Now, which one of us is crazy? Me. And that’s the way they did me on the records. But I don’t fault them for it, because if you don’t know, you don’t know. It took me to learn.

Growing up, I was taught that a man has to defend his family. When the wolf is trying to get in, you gotta stand in the doorway.

Notes are expensive… spend them wisely!

T-Bone was, to me, that sound of being in heaven.

There’s such a cynicism about the phrase ‘I laughed all the way to the bank.’ It’s as though money is what you’re doing, rather than playing music. If you’re playing a money game, why not get into banking?

The more real you get, the more unreal everything else is.

I was not prepared to play the role of singer in the camp of the warriors

Talent is cheap, and many talents treat themselves cheaply.

Jazz is very much alive. Everywhere I go there’s a new generation of musicians playing Jazz music.

They’re not particular about whether you’re playing a flatted fifth or a ruptured 129th as long as they can dance to it.

Jazz is a very accurate, curiously accurate accompaniment to 20th century America.

Music was our wife and we loved her. We stayed with her, clothed her and put diamond rings on her hands.

I’m a musician at heart, I know I’m not really a singer. I couldn’t compete with real singers. But I sing because the public buys it.

I heard someone say ‘What’s that kid doing here? Call your piano player and let’s get started.’

When I heard T-Bone, I flat out lost my mind.

People who are meant to be drawn to your music will find you.

I don’t consider myself a musician who has achieved perfection and can’t develop any further.

A guitar is something you can hold and love and it’s never going to bug you. But here’s the secret about the guitar – it’s defiant. It will never let you conquer it. The more you get involved with it, the more you realize how little you know.

I would like you to know, I am a doctor of music.