B. B. King

Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but no one wants to die to get there!

I was a singing disc jockey who heard every type of music there was – and loved it all.

I never wanted to be like other blues singers. I might like hearing them play, but I’ve never wanted to be anyone other than myself. There are a few people that I’ve wished I could play like, but when I tried, it didn’t work.

In our local Baptist church, I sang in the choir and formed a gospel quartet. When our minister caught me messing with his guitar, he taught me three positions – one, four and five. After that, I taught myself to play.

I don’t think it’s meant for man to know everything at once.

Jazz is the big brother of the blues. If a guy’s playing blues like we play, he’s in high school. When he starts playing jazz it’s like going on to college, to a school of higher learning.

The better it gets, the fewer of us know it.

Jazz is the sound of surprise.

Paint pictures with sound. First, find your white-the deepest, roundest sound you can play on the guitar. Then, find your black-which is the most extreme tonal difference from white you can play. Now, just pick the note where you’ve got white, pick it where you’ve got black, and then find all those colors in between. Get those colors down, and you’ll be able to express almost any emotion on the guitar.?

The Blues is never old.

A drummer has to be kind-hearted.

I hate to think of Jazz as black and white, something political.

You’re just a little too hip for the room. It’s not good to be too hip because two hips make an ass.

I stole everything I ever heard, but mostly I stole from the horns.

If you’re gonna sing meaningful songs, you have to be committed to living a life that backs that up.

I cannot say what I think is right about Music. I only know the rightness of it.

I sing like I feel.

Bass players are always the intellectual kind, but nobody knows it.

There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.

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

When you’re creating your own shit, even the sky ain’t the limit.