B.B. King

A Blues guitarist without equal, B.B. King’s seismic influence over his beloved style earned him the title ‘The King of Blues’, influencing countless others in his wake.

King was influenced from early on by the gospel music he would hear in church. Soon after loaning money for his first guitar, his talents began earning him far more than his plantation work, and he swapped Mississippi for Tennessee.

After settling permanently in Tennessee in 1948, the following year saw King sign to Bullet Records with his tracks Miss Martha King and I’ve Got the Blues. Building momentum with numerous other hits, he was playing roughly 300 shows a year by the mid-1950s; a work rate he kept up for over two more decades.

After Rock’n’roll, the style King helped influence, emerged in the 50s, he began to absorb aspects of the style, despite being initially reluctant. After moving to the ABC imprint in 1965, he gave the world his first album: Live at the Regal. In the wake of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968, he teamed up with fellow guitar titans Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Guy for a blues benefit show.

With acts such as Led Zeppelin hugely inspired by King, his appeal grew to a young white audience in the late 60s. His 1969 track The Thrill is Gone became his most successful song and won him his first Grammy in 1971.

Once the 1980s arrived, King was universally revered as a blues God. Winning another Grammy for his 1984 album Blues n’ Jazz, he also earned a lifetime achievement award at the 1988 Grammys ceremony, with 1990’s Live at Saint Quentin earning him yet another.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame in the early 90s, King would later receive his own star on Hollywood boulevard and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. However, no amount of accolades can encapsulate the man’s importance to not just Blues, but the entire landscape of modern music.