B. B. King

We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about but try to be yourself while you’re doing so.

I liked blues from the time my mother used to take me to church. I started to listen to gospel music, so I liked that. But I had an aunt at that time, my mother’s aunt who bought records by people like Lonnie Johnson, Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and a few others.

There’s a sadness to all kinds of music if you want to hear it. There’s also happiness to it if you want to hear it.

I didn’t want to disrespect my parents, so I never played blues around the house. But I knew then, same as I know today, that I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I think that before they died, they both felt very proud of me.

The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.

I’m a fan first. I believed Duke Ellington when he said there’s no bad music, just some of it is presented badly. As a kid, hanging around Church Street, the presentation of music was so powerful, I couldn’t help but jump for joy. I had discovered art, or truth, or whatever you want to call it; I had seen a light I’d follow forever.

Men have died for this music. You can’t get more serious than that.

For me, I started on a Les Paul and went through years of playing other guitars and just came back full circle to what was more natural to me.

People complain about the music industry, but this is a great time to be a musician.

Jazz is like wine. When it is new it’s only for the experts, but when it gets older everybody wants it.

You can’t explain Jazz to anyone without losing the experience because it’s feeling, not words.

Once I could play what I heard inside me, that’s when I was born.

All music is beautiful.

Practice 15 or 20 years and then it comes out spontaneously.

I wanted to do the music, but not at the expense of being happy.

I got a chance to listen to and watch Thelonious Monk and his quartet play two shows a night, for six weeks. It was a great education. There was my university, man.

Playing gives me as much good feeling now as it did when I was a bitty kid.

Jazz music is the real deal.

I didn’t know the right names for anything at first, but I knew what knocked me out. Changes… man I dug.

Music making is the most joyful activity possible, the most perfect expression of any emotion.

Man, as long as people want to hear Jazz, I’ll give it to them.