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Photography by Laura Carbone
B.B. King recorded 16 live albums, 43 studio albums and 138 singles, and by now, Every Day we Have his Blues with us. This article incorporates a number of his song titles [with apologies to Grammerly].
B.B. may have passed on, but The Thrill is (not) Gone. B.B. King touched all our lives, and he changed the face of music as the world knows it today. Playing With his Friends, they came to honor the man and the museum. Gary Clark Jr, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, Lil Ray and Kenny Neal, Mr. Sipp, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, along with Tony Coleman and members of BB’s old band, to Ride With the King one more time and Play the Blues For You.
He started life as Riley B. King, the son of two sharecroppers in the impoverished Mississippi Delta and raised by his grandmother, No One Knows You When You’re Down and Out, but that didn’t last long. King picked up a guitar as a teenager to escape picking cotton, He shortened his “Blues Boy” radio moniker to B.B. and went on to become one of the most influential blues guitarists of all time, earning 15 Grammys (including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award), a National Medal of the Arts and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Over the course of his lifetime, he told us in song Why He Sings the Blues, performing over 15,000 times, paying The Cost To Be the Boss. He once said, “They pay me to travel—I play for free.” King passed away in 2015, at 89.
In 2008 the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center opened in King’s hometown of Indianola, showcasing recordings and artifacts from his 60-year career. Per B.B.’s request, it also acts as a bridge from Troubles, Troubles, Troubles to productive lives for local Delta youth, and is his final resting place, where the museum Sees That His Grave Is Kept Clean.
On June 5th 2021, the B.B. King Museum opened the multi-million dollar 4,800 square foot expansion of exhibit space, a computer learning center, automobile wing and a new Memorial Pavilion surrounding the grave site. The large new wing Lets the Good Times Roll and houses the Keys To the Highway, with B.B. King’s $1.4-million high-tech tour bus, his 1978 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost and his personally restored Driving Wheel, a 1984 Chevy El Camino.
Walkin’ and Cryin’, visitors go outside to the Zen-like Memorial Pavilion, quiet save for the Sweet Little Angel chirps of songbirds. An engraved black marble tablet at center marks his grave, and the outside walls bear metal panels with the names of hundreds of B.B.’s songs. Sit on a bench next to a life-sized B. B. King bronze sculpture by artist Toby Mendez, and reflect on How Blue You Can Get.
The live music that Rocked Me Baby was a free, nine-hour street party on a stage outside the museum. The backbeat was led by the King’s nephew, Walter King, longtime drummer Tony “TC” Coleman and former bassist Michael Doster. Teenage students from the B.B. King Museum Allstars and the veteran local band, Jake and the Pearl Street Jumpers, took to the stage. Mississippi’s own Castro Coleman (aka Mr. Sipp) got to Confessin’ the Blues—even though It’s Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness—and knocked holes in it, bringing everybody to their feet. Next up was Raful “Lil Ray” Neal showing the family blues pedigree with brothers Fred, Darnell and Kenny as well as special guest singer Teeny Tucker. Blues prodigy Christone “Kingfish Ingram followed, then stepped off the stage and into the crowd for some Street Life.
Next was the right time to start Night Life, the mega jam backed by Tony AC Coleman and the B.B. King Allstar Band. Kenny Neal carried a genuine B.B. King-signed Gibson 355 “Lucille” guitar. First song was his personal Thank You to B.B. King with the chorus of “I want to thank you B.B. for paving the way for me. I say the thrill ain’t gone and your blues are going to live on.” Vasti Jackson, Selwyn Birchwood, Mr. Sipp, country artist Tom Wurth followed along with a young B.B. tribute artist D.K. Harrell, notable for his King-like singing and guitar style. Gary Clark Jr met B.B. when he was 16 years old, the got to play with him several times, including the historic Red White and Blues concert inside Barack Obama’s White House. Clark performed B.B.’s Three O’clock Blues with such intensity it felt like B.B.’s spirit was just floating on stage.
Susan Tedeschi and husband Derek Trucks took to the stage with Derek burnishing a personalized authentic Lucille’s, with B.B.’s image and dated signature on its body. The pair toured with B.B. King several times, including the renowned Live at Albert Hall record. B.B. King had remarked about Trucks’ guitar work, “That’s about as good as I’ve ever heard it.” Trucks continued with his masterful slide playing on “You Don’t Know” and “How Blue Can You Get.” An all-star jam session capped the night with ten guitarists paying tribute to King with “Why I Sing the Blues” and his legendary song, “The Thrill Is Gone.”
—Laura Carbone
The B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center is a must-see stop when traveling in the South.
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