Every Friday around 11 a.m. Central, it’s time for Classic Americana on Radio Heartland. We pull a special track from the archives or from deep in the shelves to spotlight a particular artist or song.

B.B. King was born Riley B. King on Sept. 16, 1925, the son of sharecroppers who lived and worked in the Mississippi Delta. As a teenager, he moved to the town of Indianola, Mississippi, and King forever considered Indianola his hometown.

As a teenager singing in church, King got interested in learning to play guitar. A member of the church community paid for King’s first guitar on the condition that King pay back the debt in installments, which King did. Inspired to become a blues and radio performer, King relocated to Memphis where he landed a job as a radio host and musician. He was given the on-air nickname “Beale Street Blues Boy,” which got shortened to “Blues Boy,” and eventually, was clipped to simply “B.B.” It was the moniker B.B. King would carry throughout his life and career. 

In the late 1940s, B.B. King became fascinated by the sound of the electric guitar — and when King went electric, his career and his lasting influenced were supercharged. Performing in clubs up and down Memphis’ Beale Street, King was discovered by record producers and soon his steps to becoming the “undisputed King of the Blues” began in earnest. In the 1950s, through a series of hits beginning with “Three O’Clock Blues,” B.B. King became the most important artist in R&B. In 1969, he recorded the song “The Thrill Is Gone,” which we’ll feature as our Classic Americana pick. That song earned King the first of his 15 Grammy Awards.

King’s accolades were many; in 1987, King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2006, King was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. In 2008, in King’s hometown of Indianola, Mississippi, the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center opened its doors. Not only does the museum tell the story of King’s musical achievements, it is a living institution that provides education, promotes unity, empowers people and brings the community together through music and the arts.

Beyond music, King was also a licensed airplane pilot, and he donated his time and money to such causes as prison reform and to providing musical instruments to underserved children and schools.

B.B. King died in 2015 from complications from diabetes at the age of 89. King’s beloved guitar, Lucille, rested in its stand next to King’s casket in the church at King’s funeral.

Classic Americana Playlist

External Links

B.B. King – official site

B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center – official site