HAPPY BIRTHDAY, B.B....THE THRILL STILL AIN'T GONE!

A great piece in USA Today Friday celebrating the birthday of one of the great bluesmen, Riley B. "B.B." King, as he turns 80.

The man has had so much recognition for his remarkable talent: 13 Grammy awards, hall of fame inductions (Rock and Roll HOF, Blues Foundation HOF), honourary doctorates, among many others. But the one that meant most to B.B. King...being honoured in February by having a B.B. King Day designated by the Mississippi Legislature including a ceremony during a joint session of the body.

"In my early years I was afraid to even go across the grounds of the state Capitol," King says. "I believe being there did more for me than anything else, anywhere else. One of the reasons was it hadn't happened to any black person that I know about. To be this sharecropper from a plantation and to be there was a great honor for me. ... And I cried."

What's amazing is that King still keeps a full schedule, a diabetic at age 80, averaging over 250 nights on the road a year during his six decade career.

I had the chance to meet B.B. King once, when I was working an afternoon drive gig at a radio station in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He was doing a show that evening at a local club, and had been brought to our station to promote it. While he was waiting to go on-air across the hall at the Top 40/Rock FM, I spoke to him briefly and found the man to be truly humble and outgoing. I also made sure I got his autograph, although I could only find one of the ledger pages of my checkbook for him to sign in the rush...still have it, too!

A couple of my favourite quotes from the story:

"I love the ladies, and I don't like nobody talking bad about them. I think that they are God's greatest creation." This from a man who has 15 children by as many mothers!

And he talks about how the blues is often misunderstood by people:

"To me, blues is a tonic for whatever ails you. I could play blues and then not be blue anymore. Most people, when they think of blues, they think about the real slow droopy-drawers type of music. But all blues is not like that, just like jazz is not all fast.
"Blues to me has to do with things we like or dislike. There were times on the plantation that you wished the boss's house would catch on fire. You couldn't tell him that, because you'd get in trouble. So you would say a woman or my baby did so and so and so."

The man from Itta Bena, Mississippi will always be the King of the Blues!