It's going to be years and years before most people realize how greatly he contributed to American music. B. B. King More Quotes by B. B. King More Quotes From B. B. King It seems like I always had to work harder than other people. Those nights when everybody else is asleep, and you sit in your room trying to play scales. B. B. King play night people I remember Elvis as a young man hanging around the Sun Studios. Even then, I knew this kid had a tremendous talent. He was a dynamic young boy. His phraseology, his way of looking at a song, was as unique as Sinatra's. I was a tremendous fan, and had Elvis lived, there would have been no end to his inventiveness. B. B. King song boys kids 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. B. B. King sadness kind want Jazz is the big brother of the blues. If a guy's playing blues like we play, he's in high school. When he starts playing jazz it's like going on to college, to a school of higher learning. B. B. King brother college school Ladies, friends, and music - without those three, I wouldn't wanna be here B. B. King three 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. B. B. King perfect play thinking I always liked the steel guitar. I also love the guys that play the bottleneck. But I could never do it; I never made it do what I want. So every time I would pick up the guitar, I'd shake my hand and trill it a bit. For some strange reason my ears would say to me that sounds similar to what those guys were doing. I can't pick up the guitar now without doing it. So that's how I got into making my sound. It was nothing pretty. Just trying to please myself. I heard that sound. B. B. King guitar play hands When you heard Jimi Hendrix, you knew it was Jimi Hendrix. He introduced himself with his instrument. His attack to a guitar man, was, oh, something else! You think of one of the great American ball players, or one of the great fighters of the world, you know, that's the way he would attack any note on his guitar. B. B. King player men thinking I can't think of anyone I've mistreated. I've always thought that I am my brother's keeper. And I believe there's a 'great spirit' that takes care of all of us. B. B. King brother believe thinking Growing up, I was taught that a man has to defend his family. When the wolf is trying to get in, you gotta stand in the doorway. B. B. King growing-up trying men If it wasn't for the British musicians, a lot of us black musicians in America would still be catchin' the hell that we caught long before. So thanks to them, thanks to all you guys. You opened doors that I don't think would have been opened in my lifetime. When white America started paying attention to the blues - it started opening a lot of doors that had been closed to us. B. B. King white america thinking Water from the white fountain didn't taste any better than from the black fountain. B. B. King racism race white I don't like anybody to be angry with me. I'd rather have friends. B. B. King angry Janis Joplin sings the blues as hard as any black person. B. B. King black-person black persons The blues was bleeding the same blood as me. B. B. King bleeding blood I thought Eric Clapton was good. He still is. Not only is he good - he's rock's #1 guitarist, and he plays blues better than most of us B. B. King rocks music play I don't have a favorite song that I've written. But I do have a favorite song: 'Always on My Mind,' the Willie Nelson version. If I could sing it like he do, I would sing it every night. I like the story it tells. B. B. King always-on-my-mind song night I tried to connect my singing voice to my guitar an' my guitar to my singing voice. Like the two was talking to one another. B. B. King guitar talking two I did several shows with Jimi Hendrix, that's when I got to know him better, I knew of him, I met him [when he was playing] with Little Richard... And he was kind of quiet, shy, he didn't open up too much, but there were questions as we all ask each other. You know, "how do you do this" and "why do you do that..." We had very small discussions on things like that. And he was very polite, I thought [he was] a very nice guy. B. B. King music guy nice A lot of people believe what other people say. B. B. King believe people
