Houston Guide

BB King is known as the King of the Blues. His actual name is Riley B. King, born in Itta Bena, Mississippi on September 16,1925. He started his career in the 1940's and since then has put out 50 albums that many of them have become classics. He moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 1947 and stayed with his cousin Bukka White who was a blues performer, where B. ... more »

BB King is known as the King of the Blues. His actual name is Riley B. King, born in Itta Bena, Mississippi on September 16,1925. He started his career in the 1940's and since then has put out 50 albums that many of them have become classics. He moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 1947 and stayed with his cousin Bukka White who was a blues performer, where B.B. King learned the blues.
He got his big break in 1948, when he played on a radio station in West Memphis. He started playing steadily at Sixteenth Avenue Grill. He was discovered by an all black radio station called WDIA, and was pushed further into stardom. He was called B.B. King which stood for Beale Street Blues Boy. and then transformed to Blues Boy King.

In the middle of the 1950's he was performing at a dance and a fight broke out and the place he was in caught fire. In the midst of the fire everyone rushed out. He went back in to retrieve his guitar escaping death. The fight was over a woman named Lucille. To this day his trademarked Gibson guitar carried that name.
His guitar-playing style was unique, mixing together styles from other artists as well as different music genres from jazz, pop,blues, and swing.
The Rolling Stones in 1969 asked BB to open up 18 of their concerts.He was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and received NARAS' Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award®. « hide