No matter how long you’ve been playing music, you’re probably bound to have one or two off nights. That still doesn’t explain exactly what happened to B.B. King after the blues legend was heckled mercilessly by a St. Louis crowd during a performance last night.
A recap from Billboard describes fans confused by King’s “rambling” performance, which only features a few full songs amid musical snippets, anecdotes, and a 15-minute singalong version of “You Are My Sunshine.” Fans noticed that the house lights at the Peabody were left up for most of the show, which could have worked as a distraction for King.
Daniel Durcholz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch elaborated further on the show, saying that King had moments when he forgot lyrics or chord changes while the band stood by and let him take the heat from the crowd.
King’s representatives have declined to comment about the show. We ourselves hope that this was a mere aberration on an otherwise storied music career.
BB King’s passing has been horrendous. There will be no other like him. He was a total one-off. When he played well nothing could touch that beautiful butterfly vibrato, those gorgeously expressive bends and that amazing voice.
I had the privilege to see him play on two occasions, one in 1992 where he shared the bill with Robert Cray and again in 2006 when he shared the stage with Gary Moore. He played brilliantly both times and that more than made up for the chatter though even I will admit that it got wearing on the latter occasion when he talked for about 40 minutes without playing a single note and even introduced us to one of his sons who was brought out onto the stage!
That aside, the man was a treasure and he thankfully got to live out a full, varied and rich life. He didn’t die in poverty as so many of the old Blues musos did before him. He played in front of Presidents and garnered the respect of people across all genres. Live At The Regal is how I choose to remember this astonishing and beautiful soul.
Rest In Peace BB x