B.B. King Quotes & Sayings

Blues purists never cared for me. I don't worry about it. I think if it this way: When I made 'Three O' Clock Blues,' they were not there. The people out there made the tune. And blues purists just wrote about it. The people is who I'm trying to satisfy. — B.B. King

Charlie Christian had no more impact on my playing than Django Reinhardt or Lonnie Johnson. I just wanted to play like him. I wanted to play like all of them. All of these people were important to me. I couldn't play like any of them, though ... — B.B. King

I've seen myself on those lists of the 100 best guitarists, and if they think that I'm that good, thank them. Thank God for them. But I don't think so. — 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

Touring a segregated America - forever being stopped and harassed by white cops hurt you most 'cos you don't realise the damage. You hold it in. You feel empty, like someone reached in and pulled out your guts. You feel hurt and dirty, less than a person. — B.B. King

I have a nice car, a Mercedes. And then I have an old El Camino truck that I'm crazy about. I like to get in that truck and go up in the hills near where I live, in Vegas, and take my camera. That, to me, is Heaven, being out in nature, taking pictures of the wildlife. — B.B. King

Being a blues singer is like being black two times. — B.B. King

Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but no one wants to die to get there! — B.B. King

Once in a while, the thumb that fits over the neck of the guitar kinda bothers me a little bit, but not that much yet. I figure in time I won't do much because of my age. — B.B. King

I look at an audience kind of like meeting my in-laws for the first time. You want to be yourself, but you still want to be somebody that they like. When I go on the stage each night, I try my best to outguess my audience. — B.B. King

When I was in the country and I was trying to play, nobody seemed to pay too much attention to me. People used to say, 'That's just that ole blues singer.' — B.B. King

I've said that playing the blues is like having to be black twice. Stevie Ray Vaughan missed on both counts, but I never noticed. — B.B. King

The problem is that a lot of the blues stations are late on Saturday night, and like a lot of people, I ain't no vampire! — B.B. King

I never met a woman I didn't like. I love 'em all, in their different ways. — B.B. King

Playing the guitar is like telling the truth - you never have to worry about repeating the same [lie] if you told the truth. You don't have to pretend, or cover up. If someone asks you again, you don't have to think about it or worry about it because there it is. It's you. — B.B. King

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

I was born on a plantation, and things weren't so good. We didn't have any money. I never thought of the word 'poor' 'til I got to be a man, but when you live in a house that you can always peek out of and see what kind of day it is, you're not doing so well. And your rest room is not inside the house. — B.B. King

If my fans want to do something for me when that time comes, I say, don't waste your money on me. Help the homeless. Help the needy ... people who don't have no food ... Instead of some big funeral, where they come from here and there and all over. Save it. — B.B. King

I never use that word, retire. — B.B. King

I was a regular hand when I was 7. I picked cotton. I drove tractors. Children grew up not thinking that this is what they must do. We thought this was the thing to do to help your family. — B.B. King

I don't like anybody to be angry with me. I'd rather have friends. — B.B. King

Playing guitar is like telling the truth. — B.B. King

I'd rather be B.B. King. That's the way I started. Let the heavy metal guys play heavy metal, let the others play the other ... I try to do what I do better, not get away from it. — B.B. King

Notes are expensive ... spend them wisely — B.B. King

I've been a loner all the time throughout my life ... I haven't been the best father ... Many times ... my children have accused me of not giving them enough attention. And, frankly, I never have been good at handling that. — B.B. King

I don't feel that no big stone should be put over my head, saying he did this, he did that. Unless there's something that I really did do. I believe I'm just ordinary. And I'd like for people to think of me that way, as just a guy that tried. Wanted to be loved by other people because he loved people. — B.B. King

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

The beautiful thing about education is that no one can take it away from you. — B.B. King

I just wonder where I was when the talent was being given out, like George Benson, Kenny Burrell, Eric Clapton ... oh, there's many more! I wouldn't want to be like them, you understand, but I'd like to be equal, if you will. — B.B. King

If there was no ladies, I wouldn't wanna be on the planet. Ladies, friends, and music - without those three, I wouldn't wanna be here. — B.B. King

The blues are three L's - living , loving and hopefully, laughing. — B.B. King

I don't care for the music when they're talking bad about women because I think women are God's greatest gift to the planet - I just like music. — B.B. King

When I was young, I didn't play like I do today. So these kids are starting at the height that I've reached. Think what they might do over time. — B.B. King

I've been married twice. Most women would rather not be married to a traveling blues singer. — B.B. King

Religion began as a natural explanation of the universe. The problem started when people refused to accept new evidence. — B.B. King

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

Cotton was a force of nature. There's a poetry to it, hoeing and growing cotton. — B.B. King

I was a singing disc jockey who heard every type of music there was - and loved it all. — B.B. King

I don't do much recording anymore, but before I really stopped, I was glad to get five, five cent a record. That's why when I see people today and they complain about what they get, and I picked cotton for $2.50 a day. — B.B. King

I don't like to feel that I owe anything. I like to feel that I pay my own way, no free lunch. — 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. — B.B. King

I used to play - when I first started trying to be professional, I disk jockey from 1949 to 1955 in Memphis, Tennessee, and I was quite popular there as a disk jockey. — B.B. King

The way I feel today, as long as my health is good and I can handle myself well and people still come to my concerts, still buy my CDs, I'll keep playing until I feel like I can't. — B.B. King

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

I'm no good with chords. I'm horrible with chords. — B.B. King

I'm trying to get people to see that we are our brother's keeper. Red, white, black, brown or yellow, rich or poor, we all have the blues. — B.B. King

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

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

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

I've known people that was a part of a family and always feel that the family liked everyone else but them. That hurts, and that's as deep a hurt as you can possibly get. I've known people that would have problems with their love life. This is kind of how blues began - out of feeling misused, mistreated. Feeling like they had nobody to turn to. Blues don't necessarily have to be sung by a person that came from Mississippi as I did, because there are people having problems all over the world. — B.B. King

My last divorce was in '68. What made it come to a head was a promise. See, I had promised her that the next year I wouldn't work as much. But then I got in trouble with the IRS, and I had to continue working just as much to pay the government. So she said I lied, which is something I never did. — B.B. King

The blues was bleeding the same blood as me. — B.B. King

I would sit on the street corners in my hometown of Indianola, Mississippi, and I would play. And, generally, I would start playing gospel songs. — B.B. King

Hard times don't necessarily mean being poor all the time. I've known people that was a part of a family and always feel that the family likes everybody else but them. That hurts and that's as deep a hurt as you can possibly get. — B.B. King

When we went into World War II, I was a tractor driver then. I drove tractors on the plantation. So when they start calling people my age, 18, up, I was one they called. — B.B. King

If you want to be a good blues singer, people are going to be down on you, so dress like you're going to the bank to borrow money. — B.B. King

I like jazz, rock n' roll, some hip hop - I can't think of any music I don't like. — B.B. King

I don't think it's meant for man to know everything at once. — B.B. King

You only live but once, and when your died your done, so let the good times roll. — B.B. King

Nobody loves me but my mother, and she could be jivin', too. — B.B. King

In our local Baptist church, I sang in the choir and formed a gospel quartet. When our minister caught me messing with his guitar, he taught me three positions - one, four and five. After that, I taught myself to play. — B.B. King

I gave you seven children, but now you want to give them back. — B.B. King

I don't think anybody steals anything; all of us borrow. — B.B. King

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

I have not been a good father, but no father has loved his children more. Like my father, I decided the best thing I could do for my kids was work and provide. Fortunately, I've been able to do that. Unfortunately, my work was on the road, and that's meant a life of one-nighters. — B.B. King

The minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille. — B.B. King

I never wanted to be like other blues singers. I might like hearing them play, but I've never wanted to be anyone other than myself. There are a few people that I've wished I could play like, but when I tried, it didn't work. — B.B. King

I do it because I still get a kick out of it. I still love performing. It keeps me young. — B.B. King

The early years when I was starting, blues player, you wasn't always welcome in a lot of the other places. People usually have preconceived ideas about blues music. They always feel that it's depressing and that it's just something that a guy sit out on a stool, grab a guitar, and just start singing or mumbling or whatever. — B.B. King

Growing up on the plantation there in Mississippi, I would work Monday through Saturday noon. I'd go to town on Saturday afternoons, sit on the street corner, and I'd sing and play. — B.B. 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. — B.B. King

A lot of times I say to myself, "I wished I could be worthy of all the compliments that people give me sometimes." I'm not inventing anything that's going to stop cancer or muscular dystrophy or anything, but I like to feel that my time and talent is always there for the people that need it. When someone do say something negative, most times I think about it, but it don't bother me that much. — B.B. King

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

A lot of people believe what other people say. — B.B. King

There was a lot of other young players around at that time when I was coming, but there was older people like Blind Lemon, which was one of my favorites. I don't know, just seemed like everybody I heard could play better than me. — B.B. King

What don't I want to learn? I have how-to books, history, nature. Ain't nobody here saying, 'You'd better learn this.' But I still think I've got a head on my shoulders, and it pleases me. — B.B. King

The Blues? It's the mother of American music. That's what is is - the source. — B.B. King

Janis Joplin sings the blues as hard as any black person. — B.B. King

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. — B.B. King

Back when we was in school in Mississippi, we had Little Black Sambo. That's what you learned: Anytime something was not good, or anytime something was bad in some kinda way, it had to be called black. Like, you had Black Monday, Black Friday, black sheep ... Of course, everything else, all the good stuff, is white. White Christmas and such. — B.B. King

May I live forever. But may you live forever and a day. — B.B. King

Sometimes I just think that there are more things to be said to make the audience understand what I'm trying to do more. When I'm singing, I don't want you to just hear the melody. I want you to relive the story, because most of the songs have pretty good storytelling. — B.B. King

Blues is a tonic for whatever ails you. I could play the blues and then not be blue anymore. — B.B. King

I'm more careful about my hands than about what I eat and most anything else, because my hands have been my living. My hands have been able to help me learn. My hands have taken me around the world. So I'm very proud of my hands. — B.B. King

I've always tried to defend the idea that the blues doesn't have to be sung by a person who comes from Mississippi, as I did. — B.B. King

Music is good for everybody. They say it soothes the savage beast. Well, I think theirs a beast in all of us. So let's get some more music and soothe all the beasts out there. — B.B. King

I developed in my head that I'm never any better than my last concert or the last time I played, so it's like an audition each time. You get nervous just before going onstage. I still have that, but I think it's more like concern. You're concerned about the people - like meeting your in-laws for the first time. — B.B. King

I've always liked ladies all my life. I guess it started with my mom. So every time I saw a pretty lady, I thought, she's pretty. — B.B. King

I almost chopped my thumb off once. Just before I left home, I was about ten or eleven years old, and I was trying to open a bone. Can you imagine that? A bone! I was trying to get the marrow out of a bone, and I took the ax, and I went to chop it, and something slipped, and the ax went right down there and damn near cut it off. — B.B. King

I've put up with more humiliation than I care to remember. — B.B. King

You've heard me call myself a bluesman and a blues singer. I call myself a blues singer, but you ain't never heard me call myself a blues guitar man. Well, that's because there's been so many can do it better'n I can, play the blues better'n me. I think a lot of them have told me things, taught me things. — B.B. King

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. — B.B. King

I think of guitar players in terms of doctors: you have the doctor for your heart, the cardiologist, then one that works on your feet, your leg. But I believe George Benson is the one that plays all over. To me, he would be the M.D. of them all. — B.B. King

A guitar is like an old friend that is there with me. — B.B. King

My dad died, I think, at 87. So I'll be lucky if I make 87. But in a lot of cases, the younger people live longer than their parents. And they know more. My dad used to tell me he ate the hog from his rooter to his tooter. So do I when I'm not trying to lose weight. — B.B. King

Elvis, he was unique. And he loved the blues, it was a pity he didn't do more. — B.B. King

I tell my children now that they are older, 'If something happens to me ... don't make no big fuss over me. Don't make no big expense on my funeral. Don't put any pressure on the rest of the family. I've loved everybody, and I hope they loved me. But don't create this big expense for the family.' — B.B. King

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

Singing about your sadness unburdens your soul. But the blues hollers shouted about more than being sad. They were also delivering messages in musical code. If the master was coming, you might sing a hidden warning to the other field hands ... The blues could warn you what was coming. I could see the blues was about survival. — B.B. King

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