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B.B. King spread joy to millions by giving them the blues.
The iconic musician, along with his ever-present guitar Lucille, spent nearly 70 years thrilling audiences and spreading the music he learned as a poverty-stricken youth in the Mississippi Delta all over the world.
King, 89, died in Las Vegas, his attorney announced late Thursday, according to the Associated Press.
"Blues is a tonic for whatever ails you," King told USA TODAY in 2005. "I could play the blues and then not be blue anymore.''
The same could be said of those who heard him play. No matter how stormy the tale he'd weave, by the time he was through, the clouds had parted.
"I fell in love with BB's voice before I ever picked up a guitar,'' said Warren Haynes, guitarist for the Allman Brothers Band, and Gov't Mule, and one of the hundreds of blues and rock musicians inspired by King's fluid, bent-note, vibrato-laden playing style and consummate showmanship. "When I started playing guitar a few years later I realized his voice and his guitar were the same thing. That inspired me to try and achieve that balance myself."
"B.B. King was one of the few classic blues artists to have songs on mainstream radio,'' noted Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry. "Because I was able to hear his guitar playing on the*The Thrill is Gone,*it showed that given the right song you could sneak some great guitar sounds into top 40 radio."
Almost as well-known as King's artistry and recordings was his prolific performing schedule. Director Jon Brewer's 2014 documentary*B.B. King: The Life of Riley, which featured appearances by Carlos Santana, Bono, Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr, detailed his non-stop touring, which at the time of his death had exceeded 15,000 shows. King outlived his tour manager, Norman Matthews, who died in May 2014.
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