B. B. King

When I was in the country and I was trying to play, nobody seemed to pay too much attention to me. People used to say, ‘That’s just that ole blues singer.’

I’d solo on my guitar; then sing; then solo; then sing some more. one stopped when the other started. That way I felt a continuity, not a conflict, like a wheel that keeps turning. Both sounds – guitar and voice – were coming out of me, but they issued from different parts of my soul.

I learned another thing from the hurt my cousin gave me – never to give that kind of hurt to anyone else. My revenge was to change a bad feeling into a good one. If I’m working with you and I sense you’re feeling a little insecure, I try to make you feel great. That’s how I get rid of my old hurt. If I don’t do that, my hurt grows and makes me mean and vengeful. But if hurt can change to kindness – that’s something Mama showed me – the world becomes a little less cruel.

I’ve put up with more humiliation than I care to remember.

As you get older, your fingers sometimes swell. But I’ve missed 18 days in 65 years. Sometimes guys will just take off; I’ve never done that. If I’m booked to play, I go and play.

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

Don’t settle for style. Succeed in substance.

It’s a matter of who would be right for each song. Mickey Hart for ‘All We Need is An Island’ – he’s the only guy I know who has Tahitian drums and every kind of drum on the planet.

The whole thing of being in music is not to control it but to be swept away by it.

People involve themselves with the superficiality of Jazz without digging for its soul.

Jazz is not a what, it is a how.

Always look ahead, but never look back.

Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? All the rest of you, if you

When I write songs that touch on social relevance, all you have to do is pick up a newspaper.

Music has to be accessible.

We go in there and we work on altering those ideas and in many cases go in different directions.

I’ve had those people very interested in my writing. Since I think of myself as a composer, I feel really good. I’ve had lots of guys call me up. I’ve gotten two or three commissions to write things. I’ve written lots of movie scores.

In the world of Art there are no wrong choices.

It’s either hip or it ain’t.

What I look for in concert is a connection with the audience.

If you dig it, do it. If you dig it a lot, do it again.