B. B. King

Do I love the road? Honestly? No – but it’s how I earn my living. I also don’t have the blues, like it’s some kind of fever. The blues is my job. It’s what I do.

I don’t try to just be a blues singer – I try to be an entertainer. That has kept me going.

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

T-Bone was, to me, that sound of being in heaven.

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 wanted to sustain a note like a singer. I wanted to phrase a note like a saxist. By bending the strings, by trilling my hand – and I have big fat hands – I could achieve something that approximated a vocal vibrato. I could sustain a note. I wanted to connect my guitar to human emotions. By fooling with the feedback between my amplifier and instrument, I started experimenting with sounds that expressed my feelings, whether happy or sad, bouncy or bluesy. I was looking for ways to let my guitar sing.

They’re not particular whether you’re playing a flat 5th or a ruptured 129th as long as they can dance.

The great jazz instrumentalists taught me how to sing and interpret a song. they showed me how a horn can have as much personality as an actor.

It’s not the style that motivates me, as much as an attitude of openness that I have when I go into a project.

You don’t know what love is, until you’ve learned the meaning of the blues, until you’ve loved a love you’ve had to lose.

I’m no good with chords. I’m horrible with chords.

As long as musicians have passion for spontaneity and creating something that’s never been before, Jazz will flourish.

I never practice my guitar. From time to time I just open the case and throw in a piece of raw meat.

There is a time where you’re beyond yourself, better than your technique, better than your usual ideas.

Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around.

Difference between sex and love? Well, you’re not always sure you’re in love. But when you’re having sex, there’s really no mistaking it.

I came from an era when we didn’t use electronic instruments. The bass wasn’t even amplified. The sound was the sound you got.

Jazz has evolved with an inner necessity characteristic of any true art form.

Jazz is a democratic musical form. We take our respective instruments and collectively create a thing of beauty.

I like the music. I love it and live it in fact, but for me the business part just plain stinks.

Critics get a little carried away with what someone should have done, rather than what he did.