The Thrill Is Gone: 'King Of The Blues' B.B. King Dead At Age 89
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- B.B. King might have put it best when he said, "As long as people have problems, the blues can never die." The legend might be gone, but his music lives on.
King's attorney said the blues guitarist died peacefully in his sleep Thursday night at the age of 89.
King was the last of the legendary bluesmen from the Mississippi Delta.
Riley B. King, the son of sharecroppers, was born on a cotton plantation in Mississippi.
When he was in his 20s, he hitchhiked to Memphis, Tennessee, and soon earned the nickname Blues Boy, or B.B.
He described the blues in an interview with CBS News.
"It's good for me when I'm feeling bad, and good for me when I'm feeling good. It's kind of like how religious music is to a lot of people," he said.
King was married twice, but the enduring love of his life was "Lucille." That's what he called his first guitar, and every one he picked up since.
King always let his fingers do the flying, and lived up to his nickname "The King of the Blues."
King influenced generations of rock stars, including Eric Clapton, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix, John Mayall and Keith Richards. He recorded more than 50 albums and toured the world well into his 80s, often performing 250 or more concerts a year.
The 15-time Grammy winner had an audience with Pope John Paul II in 1997, performing a concert at the Vatican, and presenting his trademark guitar, "Lucille," to the pope. It wasn't the original Lucille, of course, as that was long gone by then, and King has had several Gibson guitars named Lucille.
In 2012, King performed at a White House concert with President Barack Obama, as the two sang "Sweet Home Chicago."
King had Type 2 Diabetes later in life, but still performed hundreds of concerts a year, and continued performing into his late 80s.
His last show was at the House of Blues in Chicago in October, but it was unfortunately cut short when he fell ill from exhaustion and dehydration.
King never officially called Chicago home, but the city was central to his career, and his oldest daughter, Shirley King, is a Chicago resident.
In March 2012, he performed at Buddy Guy's Legends in the South Loop, playing alongside fellow blues guitarists Buddy Guy and George Benson.
Early on his career, he also visited the Regal Night Club on the South Side, where he recorded his album "Live At The Regal" in 1964.
At Kingston Mines in Lincoln Park, a guitar autographed by King still hangs on the wall.
"The contributions he made to blues music, you can't even start to count them. All the people that have been influenced by him, and that are out here playing blues today are directly the result of what B.B. King did, and what he brought to not only blues in blues part of the country, but to blues lovers throughout the country and throughout the world," said Kingston Mines MC Frank Pellegrino.
Craig Schneider, of River North nightclub Blue Chicago, said King "had so much charisma.
"You could understand why he was what he was, because the guy had an ability to just … his talent radiated so much, that he just drew people to him," Schneider said.
One of his most popular records was "Live in Cook County Jail," which he recorded in 1970, and which topped the R&B charts. It was ranked number 499 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time book in 2005, and spent three weeks at the top of the Soul Albums chart.
He was also a licensed pilot who stopped flying around the age of 70.
