B. B. King

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. Blues was started by the slaves and I think everybody thinks that it all should be sad… even some of the slaves had fun with it.

My wife Martha used to call me Ol’ Lemon Face because of my facial contortions when I play Lucille. I squeeze my eyes and open my mouth, raise my eyebrows, cock my head and God knows what else. I look like I’m in torture, when in truth, I’m in ecstasy. I don’t do it for show. Every fiber of my being is tingling.

I guess you can look at me, and tell I’m the old man. My name is BB King.

I think Ive done the best I could have done. But I keep wanting to play better, go further. There are so many sounds I still want to make, so many things I havent yet done. When I was younger I thought maybe Id reached that peak. But Im 86 now, and if I make it through to next month, Ill be 87. And now I know it can never be perfect, it can never be exactly what it should be, so you got to keep going further, getting better.

I’d take my guitar and play on the streets. A gospel song would get me a pat on the head. But a blues would get me a dime. So you see why I stuck with the blues.

To me, singing is like talking. If it ain’t natural, it ain’t right.

For most dates I was paid the sum of $1 per hr and they always tipped me at the end of the night.

I did go through a trial-and-error period where I tried out lots of different guitars, but within a couple of years I was right back to the Les Paul. From that point it’s stayed with me ever since. I have other guitars—and I love a lot of them—but I’m most at home on a Les Paul. It’s interesting: most of the time I would even rather make a Les Paul do the things those other guitars do. From the get-go, the Les Paul spoke to me.

I don’t have to lay on the couch and see a therapist because my therapy is in art.

I’m not a star. I’m just backing up the cats.

If you like an instrument that sings, play the saxophone. At its best it’s like the human voice

I think pop music is one of the few things in the 20th century that have made giant strides in reverse.

Most of the stuff I learned to play, I learned in high school. I had a band in high school, a jazz-fusion thing, and I was the keyboard player. I was interested in how the instruments worked and the theory behind playing with them.

For me, there wasn’t a line between working and getting paid or simply playing for fun.

I’m very shy, and I shy away from people. But the moment I hit the stage, it’s a different feeling I get nerve from somewhere; maybe it’s because it’s something I love to do.

Jazz is a complete lifestyle, something that you feel, something that you live.

Music is my life, professionally, for nearly 60 years. To be recognized by the academy is still the highest honor.

If you have something to say of any worth then people will listen to you.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to decide where jazz starts or where it stops, where Tin Pan Alley begins and jazz ends, or even where the borderline lies between classical music and jazz. I feel there is no boundary line.

Play for the spiritual aspect, the emotion.

I expect the audience to come up to my level.