B. B. King Quotes
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I don't try to just be a blues singer – I try to be an entertainer. That has kept me going.
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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.
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I don't care for the music when they're talking bad about women because I think women are God's greatest gift to the planet - I just like music.
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The minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.
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I was a singing disc jockey who heard every type of music there was - and loved it all.
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I never met a woman I didn't like. I love 'em all, in their different ways.
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I've said that playing the blues is like having to be black twice. Stevie Ray Vaughan missed on both counts, but I never noticed.
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There are so many sounds I still want to make, so many things I haven't yet done.
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The blues was bleeding the same blood as me.
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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!
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I wanted to connect my guitar to human emotions.
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The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.
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My dad died, I think, at 87. So I'll be lucky if I make 87. But in a lot of cases, the younger people live longer than their parents. And they know more. My dad used to tell me he ate the hog from his rooter to his tooter. So do I when I'm not trying to lose weight.
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Sometimes I just think that there are more things to be said to make the audience understand what I'm trying to do more. When I'm singing, I don't want you to just hear the melody. I want you to relive the story, because most of the songs have pretty good storytelling.
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I've put up with more humiliation than I care to remember.
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I'm no good with chords. I'm horrible with chords.
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Growing up, I was taught that a man has to defend his family. When the wolf is trying to get in, you gotta stand in the doorway.
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I don't think anybody steals anything; all of us borrow.
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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.
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'She's Dynamite' was a 100 years ago, and I recorded that song because the company thought that it was a great song and it was hot. That was the beginning of rock n' roll, and I guess they thought it would be a BB King version of rock n' roll.
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I tried to connect my singing voice to my guitar an' my guitar to my singing voice. Like the two was talking to one another.
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I have not been a good father, but no father has loved his children more. Like my father, I decided the best thing I could do for my kids was work and provide. Fortunately, I've been able to do that. Unfortunately, my work was on the road, and that's meant a life of one-nighters.
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Growing up on the plantation there in Mississippi, I would work Monday through Saturday noon. I'd go to town on Saturday afternoons, sit on the street corner, and I'd sing and play.
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You've heard me call myself a bluesman and a blues singer. I call myself a blues singer, but you ain't never heard me call myself a blues guitar man. Well, that's because there's been so many can do it better'n I can, play the blues better'n me. I think a lot of them have told me things, taught me things.