B. B. King

If my fans want to do something for me when that time comes, I say, don’t waste your money on me. Help the homeless. Help the needy… people who don’t have no food… Instead of some big funeral, where they come from here and there and all over. Save it.

I don’t try to just be a blues singer – I try to be an entertainer. That has kept me going.

I’d rather be B.B. King. That’s the way I started. Let the heavy metal guys play heavy metal, let the others play the other… I try to do what I do better, not get away from it.

I just wonder where I was when the talent was being given out, like George Benson, Kenny Burrell, Eric Clapton… oh, there’s many more! I wouldn’t want to be like them, you understand, but I’d like to be equal, if you will.

What don’t I want to learn? I have how-to books, history, nature. Ain’t nobody here saying, ‘You’d better learn this.’ But I still think I’ve got a head on my shoulders, and it pleases me.

[moving to Las Vegas] It was sort of like a man getting married – you don’t have to go out looking for girls, you’ve got your girl with you. I could go to casinos any time I had money and wanted to, so I actually went less.

Other than conversation, no other art form can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction like Jazz.

I want to keep redefining my work and trying new things. I want my music to be able to fit into any category. I want it to float wherever my heart goes. My music is heart music; giving it any other description is dangerous.

Music opens up minds to dream great dreams about where you can go and what you can do.

It’s part of what the blues does, to write about these things. JB Lenoir was the main one in this regard – he wrote about Korea, too, in fact. Songs that reflect these current situations – in his case, racial issues for the most part: in my case, what has happened to me, and I was in Korea.

Music making is the most joyful activity possible, the most perfect expression of any emotion.

Hipness is what it is. But sometimes hipness is what it ain’t.

A lot of singers think all they have to do is exercise their tonsils to get ahead. They refuse to look for new ideas and new outlets, so they fall by the wayside… I’m going to try to find out the new ideas before the others do.

What we play is life.

When we were at the Apollo, Holiday was a block away. I asked her for her autograph.

I like what I hear other guys doing, but the thing that really attracts me is melodic playing.

Listening is the key to everything good in music.

I prefer no one to teach me. I prefer to swing on my own.

It’s the group sound that’s important, even when you’re playing a solo. You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back them up at all times. That’s jazz.

Jazz amounts to Blues, your unique sound and the elusive genius of improvisation.

There is nothing more stuntastic than rapping in front of an orchestra.