B. B. King

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

I’d take my guitar and play on the streets. A gospel song would get me a pat on the head. But a blues would get me a dime. So you see why I stuck with the blues.

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 tell my children now that they are older, ‘If something happens to me… don’t make no big fuss over me. Don’t make no big expense on my funeral. Don’t put any pressure on the rest of the family. I’ve loved everybody, and I hope they loved me. But don’t create this big expense for the family.’

I think of guitar players in terms of doctors: you have the doctor for your heart, the cardiologist, then one that works on your feet, your leg. But I believe George Benson is the one that plays all over. To me, he would be the M.D. of them all.

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.

I don’t want to sing anything that doesn’t come real.

I discovered very early that it wasn’t quite enough for me to imitate people.

Jazz singing is like pornography. You can’t say what it is, but you know it when you see it.

Jazz is a complete lifestyle, something that you feel, something that you live.

Those who were seen dancing were thought insane by those who could not hear the music.

The true artform is being a human being.

If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliche that must have been left behind in the 60s, that’s a problem. Peace and love are eternal.

Jazz musicians have some outlaw in them somewhere.

There’s only two types of music. The stuff you can write down and the stuff you can’t. The stuff that you can’t write down is Jazz. Everything else is Polka.

Musicianship is using your two ears.

The Blues is never old.

Music used to be essential and meaningful, but now it’s disposable.

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.

The problem is that a lot of the blues stations are late on Saturday night, and like a lot of people, I ain’t no vampire!

Musicians don’t retire; they stop when there’s no more music in them.