B.B. King - Academy of Achievement

<!doctype html> <html lang="en-US" prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#"> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://www.achievement.org:80/achiever/b-b-king/","20181225135356","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1545746036"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="60x60" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="120x120" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="76x76" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="152x152" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-196x196.png" sizes="196x196"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-128.png" sizes="128x128"/> <meta name="application-name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#000000"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-144x144.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-70x70.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-150x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x310.png"/> <link href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356cs_/https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,600,400italic,600italic,700,700italic" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <title>B.B. King - Academy of Achievement</title>  <meta name="description" content=""You have a soul, you have a heart, you have a feeling, and your music is life. Life as we've lived it in the past, life as we're living it today and life as I believe we'll live tomorrow." The undisputed monarch of the blues guitar, B.B. King was born on a cotton plantation in the Mississippi Delta. As a child he learned the rudiments of his instrument from his preacher and was soon performing blues and gospel songs on street corners. In 1947 he hitchhiked to Memphis, Tennessee with $2.50 in his pocket to pursue a professional music career. Within a year he was singing on the radio and in local night clubs. In 1951 he recorded his first big hit, "Three O'Clock Blues," and began touring the country, taking his music from rural juke joints and road houses to concert halls and amphitheaters around the world. His original compositions fused elements of jazz, pop and gospel music with the classic blues. In 1970, he recorded the song that became his calling card, "The Thrill Is Gone." He released over 50 albums and received 18 Grammy Awards. Generations of rock and blues players have imitated his fluid guitar lines, with their weeping bends and stinging vibrato. Over the years, he recorded with many of these admirers, including U2 and Eric Clapton. His contributions to his country's cultural life were recognized with the Kennedy Center Honors and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Well into the sixth decade of his career, B.B. King still performed hundreds of times a year, roaming the globe as America's Ambassador of the Blues."/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="B.B. King - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content=""You have a soul, you have a heart, you have a feeling, and your music is life. Life as we've lived it in the past, life as we're living it today and life as I believe we'll live tomorrow." The undisputed monarch of the blues guitar, B.B. King was born on a cotton plantation in the Mississippi Delta. As a child he learned the rudiments of his instrument from his preacher and was soon performing blues and gospel songs on street corners. In 1947 he hitchhiked to Memphis, Tennessee with $2.50 in his pocket to pursue a professional music career. Within a year he was singing on the radio and in local night clubs. In 1951 he recorded his first big hit, "Three O'Clock Blues," and began touring the country, taking his music from rural juke joints and road houses to concert halls and amphitheaters around the world. His original compositions fused elements of jazz, pop and gospel music with the classic blues. In 1970, he recorded the song that became his calling card, "The Thrill Is Gone." He released over 50 albums and received 18 Grammy Awards. Generations of rock and blues players have imitated his fluid guitar lines, with their weeping bends and stinging vibrato. Over the years, he recorded with many of these admirers, including U2 and Eric Clapton. His contributions to his country's cultural life were recognized with the Kennedy Center Honors and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Well into the sixth decade of his career, B.B. King still performed hundreds of times a year, roaming the globe as America's Ambassador of the Blues."/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/king-Feature-Image.jpg"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content=""You have a soul, you have a heart, you have a feeling, and your music is life. Life as we've lived it in the past, life as we're living it today and life as I believe we'll live tomorrow." The undisputed monarch of the blues guitar, B.B. King was born on a cotton plantation in the Mississippi Delta. As a child he learned the rudiments of his instrument from his preacher and was soon performing blues and gospel songs on street corners. In 1947 he hitchhiked to Memphis, Tennessee with $2.50 in his pocket to pursue a professional music career. Within a year he was singing on the radio and in local night clubs. In 1951 he recorded his first big hit, "Three O'Clock Blues," and began touring the country, taking his music from rural juke joints and road houses to concert halls and amphitheaters around the world. His original compositions fused elements of jazz, pop and gospel music with the classic blues. In 1970, he recorded the song that became his calling card, "The Thrill Is Gone." He released over 50 albums and received 18 Grammy Awards. Generations of rock and blues players have imitated his fluid guitar lines, with their weeping bends and stinging vibrato. Over the years, he recorded with many of these admirers, including U2 and Eric Clapton. His contributions to his country's cultural life were recognized with the Kennedy Center Honors and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Well into the sixth decade of his career, B.B. King still performed hundreds of times a year, roaming the globe as America's Ambassador of the Blues."/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="B.B. 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text-white"> <h2 class="serif-8 feature-area__text-subhead back"><a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever">All achievers</a></h2> <h1 class="serif-1 entry-title feature-area__text-headline">B.B. King</h1> <h5 class="sans-6 feature-area__blurb">King of the Blues</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div>  <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-55 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-musician"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix">  <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane fade in active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="banner clearfix"> <div class="banner--single clearfix"> <div class="col-lg-8 col-lg-offset-2"> <div class="banner__image__container"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <img class="lazyload banner__image" data-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/king_bb_WhatItTakes_256x256-190x190.jpg" alt="What It Takes - B.B. King"/> </figure> </a> </div> <div class="banner__text__container"> <h3 class="serif-3 banner__headline"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> Listen to this achiever on <i>What It Takes</i> </a> </h3> <p class="sans-6 banner__text m-b-0">What It Takes is an audio podcast on iTunes produced by the American Academy of Achievement featuring intimate, revealing conversations with influential leaders in the diverse fields of endeavor: music, science and exploration, sports, film, technology, literature, the military and social justice.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">I think that there’s a place for playing the guitar. There’s a place for singing the blues.</h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> September 16, 1925 </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Death</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> May 14, 2015 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p>Riley B. King was born to a family of poor sharecroppers on a plantation near the small town of Itta Bena in the Mississippi Delta. King’s parents separated when he was only five and his mother took him to live in the nearby hill country in Kilmichael, Mississippi. By age seven he was doing the work of a grown man in the field. He was only nine when his mother died. He found inspiration in the music of the African American church. He dreamed of becoming a gospel singer and learned the rudiments of guitar from his preacher. He arranged with his employer to acquire his first guitar and taught himself further with mail-order instruction books.</p> <figure id="attachment_12936" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><noscript><img class="wp-image-12936 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-014-king.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-12936 size-full lazyload" alt="B.B. King, "the Beale Street Blues Boy," at age 23, advertising his show on Memphis radio station WDIA in 1948. (Courtesy of B.B. King)" width="2280" height="3141" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-014-king.jpg 2280w, /web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-014-king-276x380.jpg 276w, /web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-014-king-552x760.jpg 552w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-014-king.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1948: B.B. King, “the Beale Street Blues Boy,” at age 23, advertising his show on Memphis radio station WDIA.</figcaption></figure><p>In his teens, he dropped out of school and returned to the Delta, where he drove a tractor on a large plantation. On his off hours, he sang for small change on street corners in the nearby towns, sometimes visiting as many as four towns in a single evening. He also joined small gospel groups and urged the other singers to join him in leaving the plantation life for the opportunities of the city. In the end, he made the decision to go on his own, and hitchhiked to Memphis with $2.50 in his pocket. To a farm boy, the city was an intimidating sight, but he was able to stay for a time with his cousin, the well-known bluesman Bukka White, who helped him find his way in the city’s music circles.</p> <p>After a year of playing on the street and learning from the other performers who gathered on Beale Street, he was given an opportunity to perform on the blues singer Sonny Boy Williamson’s popular radio program. Soon he was playing in local night clubs and was given a regular spot on a black-run radio station. As a radio personality he was known as the Beale Street Blues Boy, later shortened to “Blues Boy” King.</p> <p>He made his first recording in 1949 and released six singles before the year was out. He was signed to a long-term recording contract and began to play in the small-town cafes, juke joints, and country dance halls of the region, as far away as he could travel and still return in time for his radio program. On his off hours, he sang for small change on street corners in the nearby towns, sometimes visiting as many as four towns in a single evening.</p> <figure id="attachment_12948" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignright"><noscript><img class="wp-image-12948 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-B.B._King_con_Lucille.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-12948 size-full lazyload" alt="B.B. King and his guitar Lucille (Credit: F. Antolín Hernandez) (Creative Commons)" width="2280" height="3214" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-B.B._King_con_Lucille.jpg 2280w, /web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-B.B._King_con_Lucille-270x380.jpg 270w, /web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-B.B._King_con_Lucille-539x760.jpg 539w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-B.B._King_con_Lucille.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">B.B. King and his trademark Gibson guitar, Lucille.</figcaption></figure><p>He was playing at a dance in Twist, Arkansas when a fight broke out on the dance floor. A kerosene lantern fell over and the wooden building caught on fire. At first, King fled along with the crowd, but he dashed back into the burning building to rescue his cherished guitar and barely escaped alive. When he learned the men were fighting over a woman named Lucille, he gave the name to his guitar to commemorate his close call. Ever since, he has called every one of his trademark Gibson guitars “Lucille.”</p> <p>In 1951 he recorded his seventh single, “Three O’Clock Blues,” which became a national hit, staying at number one on the Rhythm and Blues charts for 15 weeks. On the strength of this hit record, he embarked on his first national tour. Appearing in New York for the first time, he shortened his stage name to B.B. King, the name under which he and his music have traveled around the world. He enjoyed a second number one R&B hit with 1952’s “You Don’t Know Me.” More hit records followed, with “Please Love Me,” and “You Upset Me, Baby.” By 1955, he had given up his radio job to tour full-time, and bought a bus he called “Big Red” to transport his band. B.B. and the band played 342 one-night stands in 1956 alone.</p> <p>Still in his late 20s, he had become one of the leading performers on the blues circuit. Audiences from the Deep South to the large cities of the North thrilled to his rich, warm voice and reveled in his humor and depth of feeling. Aspiring guitarists studied his records to emulate his singing, stinging tone. With his crack horn section, he created a fresh fusion of gospel, jazz, pop and traditional blues that set a new standard.</p> <figure id="attachment_13753" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-13753 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/kin2-king-bb-AP535875426280.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-13753 size-full lazyload" alt="Blues musician B.B. King played to a packed auditorium of residents and press at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Norfolk, Mass., April 3, 1978. King has been playing to prison crowds since 1972 when he and Boston attorney F. Lee Bailey formed the Foundation for the Advancement of Inmate Rehabilitation and Recreation, an inmate services organization. (AP Photo/Michael S. Gordon)" width="2280" height="1612" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/kin2-king-bb-AP535875426280.jpg 2280w, /web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/kin2-king-bb-AP535875426280-380x269.jpg 380w, /web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/kin2-king-bb-AP535875426280-760x537.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/kin2-king-bb-AP535875426280.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">April 3, 1978: B.B. King plays to a packed auditorium of residents at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Norfolk, Virginia. King has been playing to prison crowds since 1972, when he and Boston attorney F. Lee Bailey formed the Foundation for the Advancement of Inmate Rehabilitation and Recreation, an inmate organization.</figcaption></figure><p>Disaster struck in 1958 when his tour bus collided with a gas truck on a bridge in Texas. King was not on board and none of his musicians was seriously injured, but the truck driver was killed, and the bus was burned beyond repair. King’s insurance company was in the process of dissolution following federal anti-trust action, and the accident occurred on the very weekend King’s insurance was terminated.</p> <figure id="attachment_12942" style="width: 2048px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-12942 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-030-king-chicago_0230_JFR.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-12942 size-full lazyload" alt="B.B. King performing at the 2004 International Achievement Summit in Chicago." width="2048" height="1360" data-sizes="(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px" data-srcset="/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-030-king-chicago_0230_JFR.jpg 2048w, /web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-030-king-chicago_0230_JFR-380x252.jpg 380w, /web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-030-king-chicago_0230_JFR-760x505.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-030-king-chicago_0230_JFR.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">B.B. King performing at the famed House of Blues during the 2004 International Achievement Summit in Chicago.</figcaption></figure><p>It took years for King to repay the debts incurred, and while he remained popular among black audiences in the late 1950s, he did not achieve the crossover success with white audiences that contemporaries like Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and Little Richard enjoyed. A change of record companies did little to boost King’s career, and by the early ’60s his first fans were aging and his audience dwindling, despite another radio hit, 1960’s “Sweet Sixteen, Part I.”</p> <p>King’s fortunes began to change in the mid-1960s, when a new generation of musicians on both sides of the Atlantic gratefully cited him as a major influence on their own music. He recorded a historic live album, <em>Live at the Regal</em>, in 1965 and returned to the Rhythm and Blues charts with “Don’t Answer the Door, Part I” in 1966. Young rockers such as George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck all displayed his influence in their playing, and B.B. King won a new audience among young rock fans. King went from playing smaller blues clubs to larger jazz and rock venues.</p> <figure id="attachment_12925" style="width: 959px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-12925 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-002-king-grammy.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-12925 size-full lazyload" alt="B.B. King, backstage with the two Grammys he won at the 43rd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, February 21, 2001. King won for Best Traditional Blues Album and for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals. (Photo by Sam Mircovich © Reuters/CORBIS)" width="959" height="639" data-sizes="(max-width: 959px) 100vw, 959px" data-srcset="/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-002-king-grammy.jpg 959w, /web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-002-king-grammy-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-002-king-grammy-760x506.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-002-king-grammy.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">February 21, 2001: B.B. King, backstage with the two Grammys he won at the 43rd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. King won for Best Traditional Blues Album and for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals. (Sam Mircovich)</figcaption></figure><p>In 1968, he played at the Newport Folk Festival, and in 1969 he opened 18 American concerts for the Rolling Stones. National television appearances on the <em>The Tonight Show</em> and <em>The Ed Sullivan Show</em> brought him his largest audience yet. In 1970 his song “The Thrill Is Gone” crossed over to the pop charts. No longer the star of a segregated minority, or the cult hero of musicians and aficionados, B.B. King had become a national institution. His tours now took him to concert halls, universities and amphitheaters, where audiences clamored for his many favorites, “Payin’ the Cost to Be the Boss,” “How Blue Can You Get,” “Every Day I Have the Blues,” and “Why I Sing the Blues.” In the ’70s and ’80s, he played nearly 300 dates per year, taking his band to Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and Australia.</p> <figure id="attachment_12924" style="width: 2048px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-12924 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/george-w-bush-bbking-david-mccullough.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-12924 size-full lazyload" alt="B.B. King receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George W. Bush, December 2006. (White House)" width="2048" height="1528" data-sizes="(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px" data-srcset="/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/george-w-bush-bbking-david-mccullough.jpg 2048w, /web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/george-w-bush-bbking-david-mccullough-380x284.jpg 380w, /web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/george-w-bush-bbking-david-mccullough-760x567.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/george-w-bush-bbking-david-mccullough.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2006: B.B. King receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush. (White House)</figcaption></figure><p>B.B. King was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He received a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1987, and collected awards and honorary doctorates from the University of Mississippi, Yale University and Berklee College of Music. In 1988, he recorded a track with Irish rockers U2, “When Love Comes to Town,” for their album Rattle and Hum. The hit record and associated concert film introduced King to a whole new generation of music lovers.</p> <figure id="attachment_30722" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-30722 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/wp-Barack_Obama_singing_in_the_East_Room.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-30722 lazyload" alt="February 21, 2012: United States President Barack Obama joins in singing "Sweet Home Chicago" during the In Performance at the White House: Red, White and Blues concert for the Black History Month celebration of blues music in the East Room of the White House on 21 February 2012. Participants include, from left: Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, Jeff Beck, Derek Trucks, B.B. King, and Gary Clark, Jr." width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/wp-Barack_Obama_singing_in_the_East_Room.jpg 2280w, /web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/wp-Barack_Obama_singing_in_the_East_Room-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/wp-Barack_Obama_singing_in_the_East_Room-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/wp-Barack_Obama_singing_in_the_East_Room.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">February 21, 2012: President Barack Obama joins in singing “Sweet Home Chicago” during the In Performance at the White House: Red, White and Blues concert for the Black History Month celebration of blues music at the White House. Participants include: “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, Jeff Beck, Derek Trucks, B.B. King, and Gary Clark, Jr.</figcaption></figure><p>Over the course of his career, B.B. King received 18 Grammy Awards, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Kennedy Center Honors. In 1991, he opened B.B. King’s Blues Club in Memphis; he later opened clubs in New York, Los Angeles and Connecticut. His autobiography, <em>Blues All Around Me</em>, was published in 1996. His 2000 release, <em>Riding With the King</em>, paired him with his longtime admirer, Eric Clapton. Although he suffered from diabetes, B.B. King continued to tour well into his 80s, traveling from his home in Las Vegas to play over 250 concerts per year around the world. He died in 2015, four months short of his 90th birthday. He remains the most imitated of blues guitarists, and his influence on music around the world has been incalculable.</p></body></html> <div class="clearfix"> <figure class="achiever__video-block"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/sXzDsfMlgFw?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=254&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BB-King-Rock-Me-Baby.00_00_41_29.Still002-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BB-King-Rock-Me-Baby.00_00_41_29.Still002-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video__copy m-t-1"> <p><strong>(Academy of Achievement member B.B. King performs “Rock Me Baby” at the House of Blues during the 2004 International Achievement Summit in Chicago.)</strong></p> </figcaption> </figure> <figure class="achiever__video-block"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/G6uHHZBrENg?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=223&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BB-King-The-Thrill-is-Gone.00_02_01_17.Still004-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BB-King-The-Thrill-is-Gone.00_02_01_17.Still004-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video__copy m-t-1"> <p><strong>(B.B. King performs “The Thrill Is Gone” at the House of Blues during the opening reception of the 2004 International Achievement Summit in Chicago, Illinois.)</strong></p> </figcaption> </figure> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 2004 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.musician">Musician</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> September 16, 1925 </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Death</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> May 14, 2015 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <p>“You have a soul, you have a heart, you have a feeling, and your music is life. Life as we’ve lived it in the past, life as we’re living it today and life as I believe we’ll live tomorrow.”</p> <p>The undisputed monarch of the blues guitar, B.B. King was born on a cotton plantation in the Mississippi Delta. As a child he learned the rudiments of his instrument from his preacher and was soon performing blues and gospel songs on street corners. In 1947 he hitchhiked to Memphis, Tennessee with $2.50 in his pocket to pursue a professional music career. Within a year he was singing on the radio and in local night clubs.</p> <p>In 1951 he recorded his first big hit, “Three O’Clock Blues,” and began touring the country, taking his music from rural juke joints and road houses to concert halls and amphitheaters around the world. His original compositions fused elements of jazz, pop and gospel music with the classic blues. In 1970, he recorded the song that became his calling card, “The Thrill Is Gone.” He released over 50 albums and received 18 Grammy Awards.</p> <p>Generations of rock and blues players have imitated his fluid guitar lines, with their weeping bends and stinging vibrato. Over the years, he recorded with many of these admirers, including U2 and Eric Clapton. His contributions to his country’s cultural life were recognized with the Kennedy Center Honors and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Well into the sixth decade of his career, B.B. King still performed hundreds of times a year, roaming the globe as America’s Ambassador of the Blues.</p> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/m_Vr6ar1fuA?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=3913&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BB-King-2004-MasterEdit-FINAL.00_46_35_09.Still018-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BB-King-2004-MasterEdit-FINAL.00_46_35_09.Still018-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement</h2> <div class="sans-2">Chicago, Illinois</div> <div class="sans-2">June 10, 2004</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8">   <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>We’d like to learn how you started playing music. As an orphan boy in the Mississippi Delta, how did you get your first guitar? </strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/TQdDhEfvehI?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BB-King-2004-Upscale-1of3.00_34_14_23.Still002-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BB-King-2004-Upscale-1of3.00_34_14_23.Still002-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/perseverance/">Perseverance</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">While working for Mr. Flake Cottledge, I was what they call in the country a “house boy.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A house boy was a guy that, excuse me, that did whatever was around to be done. And my wages, I made $15 a month, which I thought was a lot of money, fifteen dollars a month.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>That’s how I got my first guitar.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>People talk about people gave it to me and this and that. I didn’t. Mr. Flake Cottledge bought it for me.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>He took half of my salary one month and took the other half the next month, so it cost me $15, a whole month’s salary to get it. When I would finish my chores — I used to milk 20 cows a day — 10 in the morning, 10 at night. And when I would finish, they would let me go to school and that’s how I got my schooling. And I would walk five miles to school, and I managed to make it through the tenth grade and that was it, but if I had tightened up I could have did better.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Of course, I could have done better, but without any supervision — they didn’t make me go to school.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>There was no agencies around there that would take me away from where I was.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Today, if you live in the city it’s possible that some of the agencies will get you and place you here or place you, not then, not there.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>But, now there were people in the area, in the community, it was sort of like a village that would have tightened you up if you got out of line.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Any of them could and would.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>So, I learned at an early age to try to stay in line.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>You do what society expects you to do, and that’s how I grew up.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_12947" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-12947 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-B._B._King_Audimax_Uni_Hamburg_November_1971_Heinrich_Klaffs_Collection_56.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-12947 size-full lazyload" alt="B. B. King in Germany (Credit: Heinrich Klaffs) (Creative Commons)" width="1024" height="684" data-sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" data-srcset="/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-B._B._King_Audimax_Uni_Hamburg_November_1971_Heinrich_Klaffs_Collection_56.jpg 1024w, /web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-B._B._King_Audimax_Uni_Hamburg_November_1971_Heinrich_Klaffs_Collection_56-380x254.jpg 380w, /web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-B._B._King_Audimax_Uni_Hamburg_November_1971_Heinrich_Klaffs_Collection_56-760x508.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-B._B._King_Audimax_Uni_Hamburg_November_1971_Heinrich_Klaffs_Collection_56.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">American blues singer, electric guitarist, songwriter and record producer B. B. King in Germany. (Heinrich Klaffs)</figcaption></figure><p><strong>So how did you decide to play the blues?</strong></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/zkhhtIqEb-w?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=89&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BB-King-2004-MasterEdit.00_47_28_09.Still012-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BB-King-2004-MasterEdit.00_47_28_09.Still012-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/preparation/">Preparation</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>I’d go to town on Saturday, after I would get through with my tractor, and sit on the street corners with my little guitar. I had a red Stella guitar, and I’d play and I’d sing, starting with gospel all the time. I’d sing me a gospel song and people would — and I guess I was kind of smart in a way because I knew where the white people passed and the black people passed, so I’d sit right at that corner where the white folks had to pass me going this way and that way and the black folks passed me going this way and that way. So, some or all would stop and listen to me because I guess I made enough noise. I had my big hat sitting down there, or a bucket or something for them to put tips in. And, people that would ask me to play, or request a song — when I finished playing it, if it was a gospel song they would pat me on the head and the shoulders and they would applaud. “Boy, that was nice. Keep it up. You’re going to be good one day.” But they didn’t put nothing in the hat. But, the people who would ask me to play a blues would always put something in the hat. Now you know why I’m a blues singer. That’s how it started.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_12929" style="width: 2048px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-12929 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-007-king-chicago_0226_JFR.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-12929 size-full lazyload" alt="B.B. King and Bonnie Raitt performing at the 2004 International Achievement Summit in Chicago. (Academy of Achievement)" width="2048" height="1360" data-sizes="(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px" data-srcset="/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-007-king-chicago_0226_JFR.jpg 2048w, /web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-007-king-chicago_0226_JFR-380x252.jpg 380w, /web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-007-king-chicago_0226_JFR-760x505.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-007-king-chicago_0226_JFR.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">B.B. King and Bonnie Raitt performing at the 2004 International Achievement Summit in Chicago, Illinois.</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><b>When did you know that music was going to be your life?</b></p> <p class="p1">B.B. King: When the people started putting the money in the hat.<span class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>That’s when.<span class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>I just hoped I could be good enough to keep them doing it.<span class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>So far they still do it.</p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/KuizK97jBqY?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=90&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BB-King-2004-MasterEdit.00_21_34_28.Still010-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BB-King-2004-MasterEdit.00_21_34_28.Still010-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/vision/">Vision</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>I happen to think that the great spirit God made us all, put us all here for a reason. And all of us have something to do, and I think we have — there’s a word I used to hear a lot called “Your Brother’s Keeper.” So I believe that I am my brother’s keeper. So, I think that there’s a place for playing the guitar. There’s a place for singing the blues. I’m harming nobody. People used the word quite often — there was a word, I guess, that came from the early slaves, when a person sang blues as I do or did, they call it “singing them old reels.” Now I haven’t found out yet what that meant, “the reels,” but I do know what they meant when they said “the Devil’s music.” But, I started thinking to myself, and I still do, they don’t equate a bus driver or a truck driver or the guy plowing the mules with working for the Devil. Why do my singing and my playing have to be working for the Devil? I tell stories like other people do in song. So, I started thinking, you know, maybe they got something for themselves, but I don’t see where I’m doing anything wrong to anyone, so why shouldn’t I? And, I started to work on it.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_12934" style="width: 1280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-12934 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-011-king-new-bench.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-12934 size-full lazyload" alt="Bluesman B.B. King and his trusty guitar, Lucille. (Photo by Kevin Westerberg. Courtesy of B.B. King)" width="1280" height="1453" data-sizes="(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px" data-srcset="/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-011-king-new-bench.jpg 1280w, /web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-011-king-new-bench-335x380.jpg 335w, /web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-011-king-new-bench-670x760.jpg 670w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-011-king-new-bench.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Bluesman B.B. King introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on “fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that influenced many later electric guitarists.” (Photo by Kevin Westerberg and courtesy of B.B. King)</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><b>At some point you went from being a kid sitting on the street corner playing your guitar for passersby and you made a decision.<span class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>You decided you were going to Memphis and you were going to make a career of this.<span class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>What inspired you to do that?</b></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/P7wH-s_-dkE?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BB-King-2004-Upscale-1of3.00_52_35_03.Still005-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BB-King-2004-Upscale-1of3.00_52_35_03.Still005-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/courage/">Courage</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>I had sang with this group, sang with two groups. The first one was called the Elk Horn — like an elk’s horn — Jubilee Singers. That’s where I started in Kilmichael and I thought we was pretty good, but then when I moved to the Delta that broke up the group, and I started to sing with another group called the St. John Gospel Singers. And, I would usually sing as a lead singer, and I had started to play the guitar pretty good, so we was one of the few groups — gospel groups — that used the guitar. And, I thought we was good because we had singalong programs with some of the great, great gospel singers. We was like an opening act, open shows for them, and I personally thought we was pretty good. And, we would work our crops each year, and come harvest time we talked about leaving and going some place to record. Because there was no recording studios in the area, so we would have had to have gone to Greenwood, Greenville or to Memphis. And, I thought Memphis would be the best, because I had heard so much about Memphis and the things they was doing there. Each year for about three or four years we would talk about it, the guys and I, and every year one would say, “Well man, I didn’t make but two or three bales of cotton. I don’t have any money. I can’t leave now.” So, finally one day I said, “Well, I’m going to leave,” and that’s how I did it. I left and went to Memphis.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p>Going to Memphis then was like a few years ago going to London or Japan or somewhere. Memphis seemed to be far, only 100 and some miles, but so far from where I was. The buildings and everything, the big hotels and much going on. And, there was a nice recording studio. A fellow named Sam Phillips had a nice studio. I had never been in a recording studio. At that time we didn’t have stereo. Everything was mono. I went in there and I looked around, but I didn’t know the difference between mono and stereo or anything else, but I did know that he had all of the mikes on one line. Let’s say five of us are playing and one breaks a string, we all got to go back and do it again. That’s the way it was when I first started.</p> <p>Before I left home I thought I could really sing and play the guitar. I thought I was really good. When I got to Memphis and went down to Handy Park — at the time I think it was called Beale Street Park — and heard those people out there, it was like a community college on the streets! I found out then that I wasn’t so good as a singer. Oh, I thought I could sing, but nothing compared to what I thought before I got there and heard these other people sing. I saw people dancing and I can’t even hardly walk. I ain’t never been able to dance in my life. If I had got a teacher or somebody that could have taught me, I could have been, but I never found anybody.</p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20181225135356if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/5iv3f6vO2Eg?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=57&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BB-King-2004-MasterEdit.00_25_06_29.Still009-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BB-King-2004-MasterEdit.00_25_06_29.Still009-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/preparation/">Preparation</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>I’d write and order me books. There was a guy called Nick Manoloff. Nick Manoloff had books. Guitar instruction books in the Sears Roebuck catalogue, the big one. I’d order those books and I studied them religiously, and that’s how I learned to put my fingers on — learned how to tune the guitar and learned my first bit of learning how to read music. I’m a blues singer, a blues musician, but I can read music — not fast, but I do — and I learned to even write a little bit. Now with my computer I write a little better. And, I believed in myself and that was the one thing I think that made me more confident in myself.</p> </div> </div>     <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview">    <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>What was it like for you as a black kid growing up in the Mississippi Delta in the 1920s and ’30s?</strong></p> <p>B.B. King: This is going to probably sound funny to you, but I didn’t think I was any different from anyone else, other than I was a black kid instead of being a white kid, and it was a segregated society. We walked to school. The white kids had a school bus. And, I was crazy about Roy Rogers. I liked William Elliott. We called him Wild Bill, never did think of them as being white. They were cowboys, my heroes. I think, trying to answer your question, I had never experienced the North. I didn’t know anything about the North. I didn’t know anything about any other society other than what we lived in. So, the answer to your question? Truthfully? All right with me. It’s just that some people had and some had not, and I wished I could have been one of those that had, now that’s the truth.</p> <p><strong>What did you do as a kid?</strong></p> <p>B.B. King: I guess I was the average Afro-American boy or American boy really. I used to hunt, fish, played. I’d shoot marbles. I was never good at any of it. The school I went to, we didn’t have a football team or a basketball team. We played something called base something. It was similar to football, with tackling and all that but you didn’t carry a ball. In other words, whoever could catch you and touch you would put you “in prison,” as we called it, and it was sort of a funny game when I think about it now.</p> <p><strong>You make it sound as if you had a pretty easy life when you were growing up, but the fact is you didn’t. It was hard for you.</strong></p> <p>B.B. King: You never miss what you’ve never had. I never had any other life. I didn’t know any other life. I knew that if I went to town on a Saturday, which I did, and there was two fountains, one said “Black” and one said “White.” I didn’t think other than that if you want to stay out of trouble, leave the white one alone. I also noticed that when I went to the rest rooms there was one that said “White Men,” “White Ladies” and “Colored.” That’s all I knew. I grew up with it. It wasn’t like somebody just threw me down there and said, “You don’t bother that…” But I was taught that in my early life. My family would always say — because there was people being lynched around me. I haven’t seen people be lynched, but I’ve seen them after they was. And I was told by some of the elders that, you know, “Unless you do certain things this can happen to you or that can happen to you. You don’t bother the white ladies, you don’t do this, you don’t do that,” and I learned that at an early age and to me it was just part of my training. I think this is why black people never did resist for such a long, long time because if there’s any such thing as being brainwashed I was brainwashed, but it didn’t bother me.</p> <p>I remember once that a lady was kidnapped and finally she helped the people rob a bank. She had been brainwashed. I was the same, and I didn’t know the difference until people started to tell me. I’d start to hear about the North, past what they call the Mason-Dixon Line. There you can do this or you can do that, just as a person.</p> <p>We heard about New York. We heard about Los Angeles. We heard about some, but Chicago seemed to be the place you could go and get you a nice car. You could live anywhere you want. You can marry anybody you want. You could date anybody. I started to think about it a little. I’d see people then that had lived up there and had come down and they would be dressed nicely and I still had on my overalls. See overalls was a thing of wear that we had and you wore them every day. Every day you had overalls on. Overalls is jeans with a bib, to me. Well I’d wear them all the week. On Friday night wash them, and dry them and iron them on Saturday morning, and wear them to church on a Sunday. That’s why today I say to myself, “I love to see the young people wear comfortable things.” I have some jeans at the house that I wear them at the house, but I swore if God let me live there is two or three things I would never do again – wear overalls! I would always have me enough to eat if I needed it, and food that I liked to eat. Those three things I swore to myself. If God let me get to be grown, these three things I’m going to have.</p> <p><strong>What was hardest for you growing up?</strong></p> <p>B.B. King: Getting up in the morning and going to the fields. I never did like that. I’m a farmer at heart. I love farming. I think it’s a great thing, producing food and seeing the trees grow. The grass and everything else is great once you get out there, but getting up that morning to go out and do it was hard.</p> <p>In Mississippi in the Delta they used to have something called frost. They even gave the frost a name. They called it Jack Frost. It would be cold in the morning and I never have liked a lot of cold. I see why I’m not white, because I could not stand the cold. I walk around now, I see people — especially white people — in their shirt sleeves and I can have on something heavy and still be cold. I get on the airplane and freeze. The stewardess come up, male or female, “May I take your jacket?” “Yes, please.” And then I’d freeze and go over and ask for it back. So I learned quite a few years ago, do not take off my jacket. Take off my overcoat but never my jacket, because you freeze.</p> <p>Another place you go and you freeze is a casino. You go in a casino and they always keep it freezing. I don’t see how people can enjoy staying in there. So it was always something that bothered me and it still do today. I’m 78 years old and still cold blooded, I guess. Reptiles have nothing on me. I don’t want to bust nobody’s balloon but they could have kept the air conditioning as far as I’m concerned. I live in Las Vegas, and the temperature gets to be 110 — 115 sometimes — and I rarely have the air conditioner below 75. That’s generally my temperature that I like. I still like those old fans that blow the air. I like those and I’ll give you guys the air conditioners.</p> <p><strong>Where did you go to school? What was it like?</strong></p> <p>B.B. King: For about a year I went to a large school in a place called Lexington, Mississippi, but most of my early schooling was in a place called Kilmichael, Mississippi. Just outside of Kilmichael, about eight or nine miles maybe. My professor was a guy called Luther H. Henson, whom I love today. I truly believe that he was one of the few people that was able to get through this very thick skull of mine. Things he told us then was long before we ever heard of a Dr. King, long before we ever heard of integration, anything of that sort.</p> <p>He said, “One day you won’t have to walk to school.” We had to walk five miles to school. “One day you won’t have to walk to school. One day there’ll be a central school,” he would say sometimes, “and everybody will go to that school. Some day nobody will look at you and think of you as a country boy or this if you don’t act like that. They will judge you by your deeds.” That was his words. “Whatever you do, however you do it will follow you the rest of your life.” And another thing he used to tell us — because we were sometimes, I think, a little hard headed – he said, “You have one body. Your body is your house.” I can hear him say that now. “If you take care of your house you can live in it a long time, but if you don’t take care of it…” meaning if you go out and you do things bad, like if you drink liquor, if you smoke, if you do this, you do that “…you’re going to hurt your house and your house won’t be able to last too long.” And you know, I started to smoke when I was 13 and after a while, I stopped. I started to drink and after a while, I stopped. Today I can still hear him; he’s been dead now a few years. He lived ’til he was about 102 years old. If I make 100, I’ll be lucky. But that’s the way I was as a kid and that’s the way I felt as a kid. I’ve never had a lot of friends like a lot of people, but I have a lot of acquaintances.</p> <p>I enjoyed going to school. I wasn’t a very good student but I loved looking at the girls. I learned that early. That’s the name of my life story: “Loving to Look at the Girls.” I thank God. Creation of the ladies is the greatest creation ever. But we had one room where we’d sit at, and one teacher, and I guess there was about 40 or 50 of us, and that was the most of my schooling there at that particular school.</p> <p>There was a lady that sat in front of me. I guess she was about eight or nine. So was I, but she was fully developed seemingly as a woman, heavy breasts and everything. We’d sit on pews. We didn’t have chairs. And about once or twice every month I’d get that urge — because I’d sit behind her all the time — to just reach over and grab her. My professor sat up on a little platform while we were studying, and he kept something called a “piss elm switch.” An elm tree has limbs that grow very long, and they don’t break easy. It was just like a whip. You would almost swear it was a whip. And they would sort of put them in the heater. We had a heater. We didn’t have central heat or anything. And they sort of burned it a little bit. When they burned it, it seemed to me the bark on the side of it was like leather. So when I’d get that urge and reach over to hug the girl — the minute I would grab her she would bite, and when she’d bite, he’d hit. So after I sat there for a while and get over that terrible pain, he would start to talk with us. It didn’t seem to bother him that he had already whopped me, but then when he would talk to me, for some reason, I understood him very well.</p> <p>I really wanted to be a gospel singer. That’s what I wanted to be. This professor had a nephew that was a popular musician that played with a guy called Buddy Johnson. So when we would talk about music he would say to me, “You can do it if you want to. You can play music. You can preach. You can do whatever you want to do, but you’ve got to want to and you need a good education. You need to learn to do this.” He would say, “We live on a plantation, we’re in the country, and most people will put you down a little bit because you live in the country.” It’s true because when we would go to town people would say, “Here come them country people.” But, we did just the opposite. “There are them old city folks,” you know. My mother would take me to church, and this preacher in the church was named Reverend Archie Fair, we called him. Archie Fair was his name, and he played guitar in the church, so I wanted to be like him. And, I never really wanted to be a preacher, but I wanted to be a gospel singer, but my family thought that if I kept things up, kept going, one day I would be a preacher. Of course, I ain’t dead yet, so I don’t think it’s too late, but I’ve enjoyed doing what I’m doing for so long now.</p> <p><strong>You didn’t go as far in school as you wanted to.</strong></p> <p>B.B. King: No, I didn’t. I was lazy. I could have done better. My mom died when I was nine, and I lived alone from the time I was nine until I was 14, because my mom and my dad was divorced from the time I was five. And my mother had took me from the Delta back up in the hills, up to Kilmichael where we were talking about. Her people was from that area and my dad was an orphan and had been raised by some guardians in Itta Bena, Mississippi, near Brickclare Place it’s called. All this is in the area of the Indianola, which is where I grew up knowing about. But, I lived there after my mother died, as I said, when I was nine and she was 27. I didn’t know what was my wrong. My mother went blind. I could see the big blood clots in her eyes and she couldn’t see, but she would talk to me. I was the only child.</p> <p>I liked working for the people that my mother worked for, the Cottledge family. I liked them. While I’m talking about that I’d like to mention that I have three people that I worked for growing up. Mr. Flake Cottledge, a man that I still enjoy calling Mr. Flake Cottledge, because to me he deserved it. I came to the Delta again, and this time on the plantation I worked for a man called Mr. Barrett, Johnson Barrett, and finally to Memphis where I met another person called Mr. Ferguson, Bert Ferguson. These three men have been in my life, and they still are, and I’ve said many times that if I could grow to be a man, I’d love to be like all three of them, just because to me each one of them was fair. They was good. They didn’t do things because they could do them. They wasn’t like a tutor or a teacher, but the things they said to me was like that.</p> <p><strong>When you were a kid working the farm in the Mississippi Delta, could you have imagined that Riley King would become B.B. King and that you would have this kind of life?</strong></p> <p>B.B. King: No. I never dreamed of it. My cousin and I would go out singing, wouldn’t get in until late. We’d sleep and they’d have a hard time waking us up in the morning to go pick cotton. Now if we don’t pick well, my uncle and my aunt — they’re not going to be happy at all. But we got to the place where we thought we was great. I think the most I ever picked was about 480 pounds a day, but my cousin was better. He would pick 500 and more. So we would pick a small bale of cotton every day, so they would let us sleep just a little bit longer because they knew when we come I was going to beat everybody else anyway.</p> <p>I used to think then that when I got older, being that preacher and what have you, I was going to have me a little farm. Not a plantation, a little farm. I could picture seeing myself plowing, my mule or on my tractor. Picture seeing a beautiful woman with my two or three kids coming out, bringing me some water to the farm where I’m working at. I don’t want her to work. I want to work for her. I want her to come up and bring me my little kids, bring me some water or a piece of pie or something. Those were my dreams, not this. Those were my dreams, but when this did start to happen, and when I started to feel for real that I could do what I was doing, the way the people treated me, I was sort of like a guest at someone’s home. I don’t want to do anything to make them not be happy that they have a guest, me.</p> <p><strong>What did you do after you left school?</strong></p> <p>B.B. King: After the tenth grade I started doing like most kids do, not paying much attention to homework. I started going to do other things. Then I started to be what we call a regular hand on the plantation. Up there in Mississippi —I keep using the words “up there” because the Delta is around Indianola, Greenwood, Greenville. Past Greenwood going east you go into what we call the hills. Kilmichael is up there.</p> <p>I used to chop cotton. I did all these things when I was seven. I was considered a regular hand when I was seven years old. I used to bale hay. I guess I did everything that farmers usually do and they expected me, the men expected me to do what they did and I did. And, I started to do more of it after I had dropped out of school because I made a little more money. Finally I learned — I was kind of into — today I guess you would say technology because I learned to drive tractors and I was pretty good. I had never heard the word “superstar” but when I think about it today, I was a superstar tractor driver. I loved it.</p> <p>I loved it for several reasons. On Mr. Johnson Barrett’s plantation, we plowed the whole plantation. I’m going to try to find out how many acres of land he cultivated. I’ll tell you, you could ride 30 or 40 minutes and you still would be on his plantation. I mean doing 50 or 60 miles an hour, so you can figure out how much land that was.</p> <p>But as a tractor driver I was popular. Hey, the girls look at you. I made a lot of money. I’ve been crazy about girls all my life. That was my downfall, I guess. It still is. But I made a lot of money. My salary compared to everybody else was great. I made $22.50 a week. I have chopped cotton for 75 cents a day. I’ve picked cotton for 35 cents a 100. When you’re driving a tractor, you’re sitting up there, all you got to do is use your expertise to keep it straight and don’t plow up the cotton, which I didn’t do too often because Mr. Barrett wouldn’t have put up with it. So you slept very well at night having to do that every day. My music and being a tractor driver seemed to make me popular with the people.</p> <p>I wasn’t a bad guy. I’ve never been in trouble. I got put in jail one night after I was a man. I was speeding and they caught me down in the Mississippi Delta and put me in jail. I’ll never forget that. I thought about that every time I started to almost get in trouble. I didn’t like that place.</p> <p><strong>So how did you first become interested in music.</strong></p> <p>My great-aunt, when I was about six or seven used to let me play a Victrola. It was a turntable, and you’d wind it up and it would play a 78 record. I did see some records prior to that that reminded me of a cylinder in a car, and you’d slip a sleeve over it and the sleeve was the recording. I didn’t see too much of that. I guess it was a lot of trouble, but later on that was interesting to me. Very interesting. That’s why I went to Memphis. I wanted to record.</p> <p><strong>You didn’t just walk in the doors of Memphis and become a star.</strong></p> <p>B.B. King: Oh no. I had a good old friend that died not long ago. He said, “B.B. King ain’t no star. He’s a moon.” I doubt if I’m either. But no, I worked very hard to try to make people like me. I worked very hard. I’m kind of like the little dog that goes and gets the paper. He brings it back, you pat him on the head and say, “Nice doggie, nice doggie.” He’ll go back and get two the next time. That’s the way I am, and I try to do that even today. I try to be as nice as I know how to be. I love people. I’ll tell you something I don’t tell people often, but I believe all people are good. Sounds funny coming from a Mississippi boy, but it’s the truth. I believe all people are good. Just a very few do bad things. And you know what I believe? They couldn’t find a man like my teacher Luther H. Henson. I could listen to him and I could hear him, and I believe if those bad people could find someone — because there is someone out there I believe that they will listen to. I truly believe that.</p> <p><strong>Did you ever have any self-doubts about your ability to do this? Did you ever have stage fright?</strong></p> <p>B.B. King: You’re not going to believe what I’m about to tell you. I have stage fright today, 78 years now. I had a lot of confidence that I could do it. I’d hear Professor Luther Henson again saying, “If you try and try, try harder.” And I have worried quite often. People use —I don’t know where it come from, but if you try, nothing beats a failure, but a try. And if you try and you don’t make it, try and try again, and I believe that. I believe that today. I believe you — sometimes you may not make that mark that you was trying to get this time, but suppose you had ate too much, drank too much water or whatever. You’re just too heavy, try it the next time when you don’t have so much food, when you haven’t drank so much water, and that’s, I think, the way I believe even now.</p> <p>Before I left home I thought I could really sing and play the guitar. I thought I was really good. When I got to Memphis and went down to Handy Park — at the time I think it was called Beale Street Park — and heard those people out there, it was like a community college on the streets! I found out then that I wasn’t so good as a singer. Oh, I thought I could sing, but nothing compared to what I thought before I got there and heard these other people sing.</p> <p>I saw people dancing and I can’t even hardly walk. I ain’t never been able to dance in my life. If I had got a teacher or somebody that could have taught me, I could have been, but I never found anybody. So I got my book from Sears Roebuck.</p> <p><strong>How do you explain what you do? What is a blues singer? What are the blues?</strong></p> <p>B.B. King: Well, the blues have been put down. I had a cousin once named — he was the only person in our family that ever been popular as a blues singer. His name was Bukka White. Bukka never taught me to play. People say he did, but he hadn’t — or didn’t rather — but there’s one thing he did tell me that stays with me. It stays with me today. He said, “If you’re going to be a blues singer, a blues musician, always dress like you’re going to the bank to try to borrow money.” And, I didn’t quite get it, but what he meant is you don’t go there slouching and sloppy. Be at your best behavior and always try to be like that, and that stays with me today. This is sort of long, but my impression of what I get from people when they talk about blues singers, they picture a big black guy, like myself, sitting on a stool looking north with a cigarette hanging on the east end of his lip, a guitar that’s ragged laying across his lap, and a jug of corn liquor on his west side and his pants split on the south side. You still with me? A cap with a bib, and the bib is kind of turned up and sort of to the east again, and he’s looking north. That’s my impression of what I feel that a lot of people think of the blues singer. So, it’s been my life always to show that there’s a different blues singer, not just that one. But, I’ve thought many times if you’re black and you’re a blues singer it’s like being black twice, two times. I’ve always fought against that. Now that’s one thing I have tried to do.</p> <p>I have learned that blues singing is just like singing any other kind of song. You still try to tell the story. Your story may not be as — shall we say — some of the love songs that’s written by a lot of the great singers, or great writers I should say, but you have a soul, you have a heart, you have a feeling and your music is life. Life as we’ve lived it in the past, life as we’re living it today, and life as I believe we’ll live tomorrow, because it has to do with people, places and things. If it’s a man, we think in terms of the lady, the opposite sex. If it’s a woman she thinks in terms of the man, but it’s still love, even though we call it blues. The myth is everybody thinks it’s all sad because it started from the slaves. That is a myth. Some of it is, but tell me what music doesn’t have some sadness in it, and then I’ll try to learn a little bit more about the blues.</p> <p><strong>Did it come easily to you? Playing the guitar and performing?</strong></p> <p>B.B. King: No, it don’t really come so easy. I think that I know my job pretty well, but I always think this way — now it’s not false modesty or anything — I’m never any better than my last job. Do you understand what I’m trying to say? In other words, I don’t always think that I’ve got it made and, “Hey, I’m B.B. King!” So and so. Never that. Never that because the people put you up there and they can cut you down like that. It’s just like the great God, this great spirit. We live and we die and I’m talking about if you die naturally you never know when it’s going to be. It can happen any time. So, I think in a way that we’re here — I’ve heard people use the word, “on borrowed time,” but I don’t know about that. I don’t think I borrowed it, but I think that I’m here and just as easy, cannot be here. So, I never think that I’ve got it made. I’ve known people that had a little money and overnight something happened — insurance no good — and what little money they had – bam – it’s gone.</p> <p>I’ve known people to be happily married. I was twice. I don’t have a good education but I like to read a lot. Now since they got the great something called “computer” — Gosh, I don’t know how I lived without it! I was reading something on my computer, and some of it had to do with Mark Twain. Someone asked him, “Have you stopped smoking?” He said, “Yeah, many times.” Hmm. I’ve tried to lose weight many times. What I’m trying to say is that you really have to go head on and do it. Not many times, just once, and finish.</p> <p><strong>Who were your role models? Were there other musicians you learned from, who taught you things about music or life?</strong></p> <p>B.B. King: Yes, many. I knew Louis Armstrong. I knew Duke Ellington. I knew Benny Goodman. Those are just a few of the people that I tried to pattern my life after, after trying to be a musician. I still have that old code, don’t smoke, don’t drink on the bandstand, don’t swear on the bandstand where I am. Never. The people are the most important things that we have so you must treat them like they are who they are, and that’s the way I’ve been all the time, no drugs, no liquor. Even when I was drinking, don’t bring no liquor on the bandstand, never. That’s the way I’ve always been.</p> <p><strong>You’ve had to pay some dues along the way. You encountered some real setbacks.</strong></p> <p>B.B. King: I think I have. I’ve had tragedies. I remember once, after I thought I was doing pretty good — this is sort of hard. I haven’t talked about it a lot. After I thought I was doing pretty good, I bought an old bus. We called it Big Red. I bought that in 1955. The band would hop on that and we was doing pretty good. That year I think we did 342 one-nighters. Blues has never been a popular music like rock and roll or like jazz. I always use the words, “We seem to be at the bottom of the totem pole all the time.” My guarantee, I believe, was about $250 a night, and we needed the money. We were young at that time and didn’t pay much attention to what we were doing, no more than we were going places. Moving about, we introduced the kind of music that we do. I hope when they come they’re surprised and they’ll hear it and like it and they’ll come back again.</p> <p>Well, at that time then we thought it was a great thing to have a bus. The band would be in the bus and I’d have my car. You had to have a new car, especially a Cadillac. You’d tell everybody you’re doing great when you didn’t know whether you were going to eat the next morning. Look like what you ain’t. If people think you’re doing well, they’ll support you well. That was our thing.</p> <p>One particular day I had played in Monroe, Louisiana, on my way to Dallas. So, I had gone to visit somebody. My bus left at the time it was supposed to. Later that evening I came on, on my way to Dallas, and found out that my bus had been involved in a wreck. It had ran head on with a butane gas truck. It had burned the front end — the whole front end off of the bus. None of my people was killed or hurt, I should say except the driver. He had broke his toe trying to get out of there, but a man had been killed in the accident and another one had burned badly. I didn’t see them. I wasn’t there. I didn’t know about it. And, the same day, would you believe, during that time the Senate was — I forgot the word they call it — but when the big conglomerates and insurance companies, when the big ones get — they had started to tear them apart if you know what I mean. I think they did it to AT&T and a few other companies. At that time, that very evening, I get a letter from my insurance company telling me that the insurance was terminated that very day, and this is like on a Friday. So, I got Saturday and Sunday, then come Monday before I can get more insurance, but I’m already on the bus, the bus now done burned up, a man has been killed! Like I said, I wasn’t there to see it. It still cost me, and they claimed there was a lady that caused the accident that was coming up to one of them Texas bridges. And in Texas, even then they didn’t have the super highways like we have today, [but] you had ballast on this side, something that if you hit it you would skid back over this way or back this way, and it was raining. So, the bus tried to miss this lady in the car, and then hit that ballast, and when he did, that’s when it bounced back right in the path of that oncoming butane gas truck. It hurt me so bad. I didn’t know what to do, but then they sued me. They didn’t care nothing about it. It was a million dollars. One million dollars! I ain’t never even seen — I couldn’t even spell a million! God, a million dollars. That was one of those times when you talk about paying dues. It took me a few years to pay it, but they let me pay it off. But, luckily the lady had good insurance and a great lawyer, so we were lucky to get a pretty good lawyer that worked with her lawyer, and they got it down to a million. They wanted much more, but we had to pay it off. That was my first setback.</p> <p><strong>Was there a turning point in your career?</strong></p> <p>B.B. King: Well, let me start it off like this: I was with a small label, and to sell 100,000 copies of anything was a hit for them. So, I got a telegram from my company that said that, “B, you got a hit.” I had recorded several things, and this one was called “Three O’Clock Blues.” They said, “You have a hit.” So then the people in the area of Memphis — because I had been on the radio, I was a disk jockey there from ’49 to ’55 — “You got a hit,” they’d say. So, I would go as far as I could go (and still) get back to the radio station the next day. And when I learned about transcribing or recording your program earlier they would let me do it sometimes. I was becoming very popular, but it was mostly then black because we were — remember — still behind the Mason-Dixon Line and the only people that were allowed to come and see me were black. And usually my audience was my age and older, but I was a young guy then. I was in my 20s. Then as I got older so did my audience, and they stopped coming, the black ones. Then long after that I started hearing people talk about my guitar playing. I never heard it from the people that the journalists said talked about it. I always would hear it from a journalist. “Somebody said so-and-so said you can really play.”</p> <p>One day I was reading a magazine — at this time the Beatles was the hottest group I ever heard of and I guess anybody else — and I read where John Lennon was being interviewed and the interviewer asked him what would he like to do and he said, “Play guitar like B.B. King.” I almost fell out of my chair just reading it, and I didn’t believe it, but I had a producer at the time named Bill Szymczyk. Bill knew John. So, one day we was in New York recording, and John was in town and he talked to Bill. And Bill said, “You got a guy over here that’s real crazy about you,” and told him who I was and I spoke to him. I never seen him personally, but I talked to him for about five or ten minutes. I was just so happy to know there is a man that’s the most popular in the world that knows my name — not my music, just knows my name — and I felt good.</p> <p>Now, we started to pick up a different audience. Instead of the black audience that we had, we now were getting young white people. Now, I’m traveling about. Now, I’m going to San Francisco. I’m going to small places all over the United States. Then finally, this agency that I mentioned to you earlier booked me at a place called the Fillmore West. Now, I had played the Fillmore many times before when it was owned by another person, but this time when I get there, there are long-haired kids — kind of like Jesus Christ used to have, long hair. I had never seen people wear hair like that around me. I saw it in papers, books and the Bible. When I pulled up there we were still on this bus. This is before the accident, this Big Red as we called it. We looked out there at the Fillmore where we used to go and in the stairway leading to the door there was people sitting from here all the way across, and there was about three or four stairs that lead up to the door. The stairs was about as long as the average length of a regular car and they’re body to body sitting there. So, I told my road manager, I said, “I think they made a mistake this time. I don’t think we’re supposed to go here.” I said, “The band and I are going to sit here. You go in and find out what the mistake is.” So, my road manager went out and he found the promoter — who was Bill Graham, one of the greatest people I think I’ve met — and he came out and said, “No, B, it’s the right place.” I looked. I wanted to say, “Are you sure?” And he said, “I’m the promoter. Come on in.” I’m scared to get off the bus. I said, “Okay.” So, I followed him in.</p> <p>Now as we went inside, and this may not seem like much to you, but I’m used to when you go in past people and they’re sitting body to body, they move way over and they’re going to look at you and say, “Hey man, watch it, don’t step on me.” They didn’t do any of that. They just sat there, and the ones who was having a conversation continued. They just leaned over politely and said nothing. And here I am like this, scared as I could be. I ain’t never played for nobody like this.</p> <p>Now when we finally get through these people on the stairway, we get inside, there’s no tables. Just a big ball room. Bare. No tables. No chairs. Nothing. People now are sitting body to body on the floor. I said, “Oh my God, we got to get past them.” This way and that way. And then finally we got to the old dressing room that I had been used to going to. I looked at Bill and I said, “Bill, I got to have a drink.”</p> <p>He said, “B, we don’t sell liquor here.” “I don’t care. I got to have a drink.” He said, “Okay. I’ll send out and get you one.” He sent out and got me a half a pint of something. I don’t know, but they brought it to me and I had a big belt of it. And I sat there reminding myself of how a cat would be if a dog was in front of it. I’m scared to death. So, Bill said, “I’ll come back and get you when it’s time to go on.” I thanked him and sat there, still shaking.</p> <p>When it was time for me to go on stage, he [Bill Graham] came back and got me, and we got to wade back through these people again, but when we got to the stage — see, they don’t know me by looking at me. They don’t know what I look like. They only know me by the music. He said, “Ladies and gentlemen…” and everybody got very quiet “…I bring you the Chairman of the Board, B.B. King.” The best intro and the shortest I ever had in my life. And all of a sudden they started to applaud, and they stood up and they applauded and I cried because I’m starting to think how these people can be so good to me and what the heck am I going to do for them. I ain’t never played for no people like this. Well, I quite often perspire quite a bit. Perspiration is running all over me, but I was crying too, and I think I had about a 45-minute set. Do you know they stood up two or three times more? And that’s the first time that I ever thought that I was doing pretty well. Not really made it, but I had gotten pretty close to the door.</p> <p><strong>What was it about that audience that frightened you and that moved you to tears?</strong></p> <p>B.B. King: They were young. Hardly 30 years old most of them.</p> <p><strong>So it was a breakthrough for you?</strong></p> <p>B.B. King: It was a breakthrough for me. They didn’t seem to look at me as B.B. King, the blues singer. It was B.B. King, the musician. They made me feel like I was somebody. I had never felt like that. Never. Oh, I had been treated nicely. Don’t think I hadn’t. But this time, the way they treated me made me think that I was like some of them other people I heard of, like the big stars. They made me feel like that that night. I’m standing up there crying because I’m so moved by what they’re doing, and then I’m wondering what the heck am I going to do for them.</p> <p><strong>How do you account for the fact that you could do it? Not everybody who comes from where you came from gets to where you are.</strong></p> <p>B.B. King: I don’t know how to answer you. I’ll try. There is so much to do. So much more to do till even today. I think that I’m okay. I think I know my job. I said this earlier. I have had a lot of things happen to me for which I’m grateful.</p> <p>I’ve met four sitting Presidents: President Ford, President Bush, Sr., President Clinton and President George W. Bush. I call him “young President Bush.” Then I met the Pope, and gave the Pope a guitar. I met the Queen of England. A few words to the Queen. I was scared to death because I didn’t know the protocol, the etiquette and everything. I didn’t want to do nothing wrong. But about a month ago I met the King and Queen of Sweden, and they gave me something called a Polar Prize. To me that’s the highlight of B.B. King’s career.</p> <p>I’m grateful for being awarded six honorary doctorate degrees. I’ve been honored at the Kennedy Center. All these things to me has been great, but it ain’t something like you can put in your pocket and keep it. It was great. Oh God, what a wonderful time, but I’m so glad it’s over when it’s over. Do you understand what I’m trying to tell you? Glad to get it, but oh God I prayed it was over. All of these things is important to me, yes. I’m so glad it happened, yes. But that was them. I’m meeting these people. That’s not B.B. King. They’ve given me honors and stuff, that still don’t tell me that I’ve done anything. It means more to me than I know how to tell you, but it’s me meeting you, meeting her or him. The honor is I’m being able to meet them.</p> <p><strong>When young people come to you for advice, what do you tell them?</strong></p> <p>B.B. King: I think I would go back to what my teacher told me in a way, but quite differently. I would say, “Get high off your music. Don’t use drugs of any kind. Please don’t smoke because that will mess up your vocal cords for your singing. Be a person. Just as you want to be loved, love them. Always respect the people that come to hear you play. Try your best to please these people, but then you’ve got to live in the neighborhood. Try to be a good neighbor. Play your music. If you’re a student, if you’re going to college, major in music, minor in computers so if your music don’t work you can still have a job. Lastly, you might become very good at what you do, a lot of people do, but everybody is not going to like it, so if you can’t make a living at it go back to your minor.” That’s what I would tell them.</p> <p><strong>We’ve enjoyed your talking with us.</strong></p> <p>B.B. King: Thank you, sir.</p> </div>  </aside>  <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper">  <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">B.B. King Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>20 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4100185528757" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-B.B._King_con_Lucille.jpg" data-image-caption="B.B. King and his guitar, Lucille. (Credit: F. Antolín Hernandez) " data-image-copyright="kin2-B.B._King_con_Lucille" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-B.B._King_con_Lucille-270x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-B.B._King_con_Lucille-539x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66842105263158" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-B._B._King_Audimax_Uni_Hamburg_November_1971_Heinrich_Klaffs_Collection_56.jpg" data-image-caption="B.B. King in Germany (Credit: Heinrich Klaffs)" data-image-copyright="B.B. King in Germany (Credit: Heinrich Klaffs)(Creative Commons)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-B._B._King_Audimax_Uni_Hamburg_November_1971_Heinrich_Klaffs_Collection_56-380x254.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-B._B._King_Audimax_Uni_Hamburg_November_1971_Heinrich_Klaffs_Collection_56-760x508.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-033-chicago_0184_JFR.jpg" data-image-caption="B.B. King performing at the 2004 International Achievement Summit in Chicago. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="kin2-033-chicago_0184_JFR" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-033-chicago_0184_JFR-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-033-chicago_0184_JFR-760x505.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-030-king-chicago_0230_JFR.jpg" data-image-caption="B.B. King performing at the House of Blues during the 2004 International Achievement Summit in Chicago. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="B.B. King performing at the 2004 International Achievement Summit in Chicago." data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-030-king-chicago_0230_JFR-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-030-king-chicago_0230_JFR-760x505.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-031-chicago_0214_JFR.jpg" data-image-caption="B.B. King is presented with the Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award by Academy members Mayor Richard M. Daley and Naomi Judd after his musical performance at the House of Blues during the opening evening program of the 2004 International Achievement Summit in Chicago, Illinois. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="B.B. King, Mayor Richard Daley, Naomi Judd" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-031-chicago_0214_JFR-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-031-chicago_0214_JFR-760x505.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.3768115942029" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-014-king.jpg" data-image-caption="B.B. King, "the Beale Street Blues Boy," at age 23, advertising his show on Memphis radio station WDIA in 1948. (Courtesy of B.B. King)" data-image-copyright="kin2-014-king" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-014-king-276x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-014-king-552x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.71184210526316" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-013-king-Guthridge-Photo.jpg" data-image-caption="B.B. King: "I have had a lot of things happen to me for which I'm grateful." (Photo by Bob Guthridge. Courtesy of B.B. King)" data-image-copyright="kin2-013-king-Guthridge Photo" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-013-king-Guthridge-Photo-380x270.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-013-king-Guthridge-Photo-760x541.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.134328358209" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-011-king-new-bench.jpg" data-image-caption="Bluesman B.B. King and his trusty guitar, Lucille. (Photo by Kevin Westerberg. Courtesy of B.B. King)" data-image-copyright="kin2-011-king-new bench" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-011-king-new-bench-335x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-011-king-new-bench-670x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4990138067061" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-010-king-BBKING.jpg" data-image-caption="B.B King: "I have learned that blues singing is just like singing any other kind of song. You still try to tell the story." (Photo by John Super. Courtesy of B.B. King)" data-image-copyright="Jon Super" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-010-king-BBKING-253x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-010-king-BBKING-507x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-009-king-chicago_0227_JFR.jpg" data-image-caption="B.B. King, performing at the 2004 International Achievement Summit in Chicago with Bonnie Raitt, one of the many musicians he has inspired over the years. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="kin2-009-king-chicago_0227_JFR" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-009-king-chicago_0227_JFR-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-009-king-chicago_0227_JFR-760x505.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66489361702128" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-009-king-bb-columbus-jpeg.jpg" data-image-caption="B.B. King: "I've had tragedies." (Courtesy of B.B. King)" data-image-copyright="B.B. King: "I've had tragedies." (Courtesy of B.B. King)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-009-king-bb-columbus-jpeg-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-009-king-bb-columbus-jpeg.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.2408906882591" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-008-king-B.B.-standing.jpg" data-image-caption="B.B. King recalls the advice of his cousin Bukka White, "If you're going to be a blues singer, a blues musician, always dress like you're going to the bank to try to borrow money." (Courtesy of B.B. King)" data-image-copyright="kin2-008-king-B.B. standing" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-008-king-B.B.-standing-306x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-008-king-B.B.-standing.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-007-king-chicago_0226_JFR.jpg" data-image-caption="B.B. King and Bonnie Raitt performing at the 2004 International Achievement Summit in Chicago. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="B.B. King: "Get high off your music." (Academy of Achievement)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-007-king-chicago_0226_JFR-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-007-king-chicago_0226_JFR-760x505.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-005-king-chicago_0198_JFR.jpg" data-image-caption="B.B. King performed at the House of Blues in Chicago during the 2004 International Achievement Summit. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="kin2-005-king-chicago_0198_JFR" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-005-king-chicago_0198_JFR-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-005-king-chicago_0198_JFR-760x505.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-004-king-chicago_0197_JFR.jpg" data-image-caption="B.B. King displays his much imitated guitar technique at the House of Blues during the 2004 International Achievement Summit in Chicago. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="kin2-004-king-chicago_0197_JFR" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-004-king-chicago_0197_JFR-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-004-king-chicago_0197_JFR-760x505.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-003-king-chicago_0183_JFR.jpg" data-image-caption="B.B King: "You have a soul, you have a heart, you have a feeling and your music is life. " (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="kin2-003-king-chicago_0183_JFR" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-003-king-chicago_0183_JFR-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-003-king-chicago_0183_JFR-760x505.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66578947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-002-king-grammy.jpg" data-image-caption="B.B. King, backstage with the two Grammys he won at the 43rd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, February 21, 2001. King won for Best Traditional Blues Album and for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals. (Photo by Sam Mircovich © Reuters/CORBIS)" data-image-copyright="kin2-002-king-grammy" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-002-king-grammy-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/kin2-002-king-grammy-760x506.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.74605263157895" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/george-w-bush-bbking-david-mccullough.jpg" data-image-caption="B.B. King receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George W. Bush, December 2006. (White House)" data-image-copyright="george-w-bush-bbking-david-mccullough" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/george-w-bush-bbking-david-mccullough-380x284.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/george-w-bush-bbking-david-mccullough-760x567.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.70657894736842" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/kin2-king-bb-AP535875426280.jpg" data-image-caption="Blues musician B.B. King played to a packed auditorium of residents and press at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Norfolk, Massachusetts, April 3, 1978. King has been playing to prison crowds since 1972, when he and Boston attorney F. Lee Bailey formed the Foundation for the Advancement of Inmate Rehabilitation and Recreation, an inmate services organization. (AP Photo/Michael S. Gordon)" data-image-copyright="B.B. King" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/kin2-king-bb-AP535875426280-380x269.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2015/12/kin2-king-bb-AP535875426280-760x537.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/wp-Barack_Obama_singing_in_the_East_Room.jpg" data-image-caption="February 21, 2012: United States President Barack Obama joins in singing "Sweet Home Chicago" during the In Performance at the White House: Red, White and Blues concert for the Black History Month celebration of blues music in the East Room of the White House on 21 February 2012. Participants include, from left: Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, Jeff Beck, Derek Trucks, B.B. King, and Gary Clark, Jr." data-image-copyright="wp-barack_obama_singing_in_the_east_room" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/wp-Barack_Obama_singing_in_the_East_Room-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2015/12/wp-Barack_Obama_singing_in_the_East_Room-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure>    </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span class="editorial-article__next-link-title">profile</span></a> </div> <ul class="social list-unstyled list-inline ssk-group m-b-0"> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-facebook" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Facebook"><i class="icon-icon_facebook-circle"></i></a></li> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-twitter" data-gtm-category="social" 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class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-cash/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/cas0-001a-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2015/12/cas0-001a-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Johnny Cash</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Country Music Legend</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">1988</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever the-arts the-arts the-arts small-town-rural-upbringing athletic spiritual-religious be-a-performer play-music " data-year-inducted="1997" data-achiever-name="Gill"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/gil0-001a-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/gil0-001a-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Vince Gill</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Country Music Hall of Fame</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">1997</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever the-arts difficulty-with-school illness-or-disability poverty racism-discrimination small-town-rural-upbringing shy-introverted be-a-performer " data-year-inducted="1996" data-achiever-name="Jones, James Earl"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/jones-james-earl-001a-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/12/jones-james-earl-001a-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">James Earl Jones</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">1996</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever the-arts racism-discrimination resourceful be-a-performer play-music " data-year-inducted="1984" data-achiever-name="Jones, Quincy"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/jones_q_760_ac-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/jones_q_760_ac-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Quincy Jones</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Music Impresario</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">1984</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever the-arts ambitious be-a-performer play-music teach-others write-music " data-year-inducted="1988" data-achiever-name="Marsalis"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/marsalis_760_ac-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/marsalis_760_ac-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Wynton Marsalis</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Pulitzer Prize for Music</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">1988</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever business the-arts poverty small-town-rural-upbringing ambitious extroverted be-a-performer make-films help-mankind " data-year-inducted="1989" data-achiever-name="Winfrey"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/oprah-winfrey/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/winfrey_760_ac-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/winfrey_760_ac-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Oprah Winfrey</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Media Entrepreneur</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">1989</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> </footer> </div> </div> </article> <div class="modal image-modal fade" id="imageModal" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" aria-labelledby="imageModal" aria-hidden="true"> <div class="close-container"> <div class="close icon-icon_x" data-dismiss="modal" aria-label="Close"></div> </div> <div class="modal-dialog" role="document"> <div class="modal-content"> <div class="modal-body"> <figure class="image-modal__container"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <img class="image-modal__image" src="/web/20181225135356im_/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/" alt=""/>  <figcaption class="p-t-2 container"> <div class="image-modal__caption sans-2 text-white"></div>  </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </div> </div> </div> </div> </main> </div> </div> <footer class="content-info main-footer bg-black"> <div class="container"> <div class="find-achiever" id="find-achiever-list"> <div class="form-group"> <input id="find-achiever-input" class="search js-focus" placeholder="Search for an achiever"/> <i class="icon-icon_chevron-down"></i> </div> <ul class="find-achiever-list list m-b-0 list-unstyled"> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/hank-aaron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Hank Aaron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/kareem-abdul-jabbar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Kareem Abdul-Jabbar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lynsey-addario/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lynsey Addario</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/edward-albee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Edward Albee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tenley-albright-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tenley Albright, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/svetlana-alexievich/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Svetlana Alexievich</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/julie-andrews/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Julie Andrews</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-angelou/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Angelou</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-d-ballard-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert D. Ballard, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-roger-bannister-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Roger Bannister</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-banville/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Banville</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ehud-barak/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ehud Barak</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lee-r-berger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lee R. Berger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-timothy-berners-lee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Tim Berners-Lee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/yogi-berra/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Yogi Berra</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jeffrey-p-bezos/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeffrey P. Bezos</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/benazir-bhutto/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benazir Bhutto</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/simone-biles/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Simone Biles</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/keith-l-black/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Keith L. Black, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elizabeth-blackburn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-boies-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Boies</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-e-borlaug/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman E. Borlaug, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/benjamin-c-bradlee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benjamin C. Bradlee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sergey-brin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sergey Brin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carter-j-brown/"><span class="achiever-list-name">J. Carter Brown</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linda-buck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linda Buck, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-burnett/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Burnett</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-h-w-bush/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George H. W. Bush</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/susan-butcher/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Susan Butcher</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-cameron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Cameron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/benjamin-s-carson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benjamin S. Carson, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-carter/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Carter</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-cash/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Cash</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-j-clinton/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William J. Clinton</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-s-collins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/denton-a-cooley/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Denton A. Cooley, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-ford-coppola/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis Ford Coppola</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-dalio/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Dalio</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/olivia-de-havilland/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Olivia de Havilland</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-e-debakey-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael E. DeBakey, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-dell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael S. Dell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-dennis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Dennis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joan-didion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joan Didion</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-herbert-donald-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Herbert Donald, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-doubilet/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Doubilet</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rita Dove</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sylvia-earle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sylvia Earle, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elbaradei/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mohamed ElBaradei</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/gertrude-elion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gertrude B. Elion, M.Sc.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-j-ellison/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry J. Ellison</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nora Ephron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/julius-erving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Julius Erving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tony-fadell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tony Fadell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-farmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Farmer, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzanne-farrell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzanne Farrell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-s-fauci-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-field/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally Field</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-norman-foster/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Norman Foster</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/aretha-franklin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Aretha Franklin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/milton-friedman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Milton Friedman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Fuentes</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/athol-fugard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Athol Fugard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernest J. Gaines</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-h-gates-iii/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William H. Gates III</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leymah-gbowee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leymah Gbowee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-gehry/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank O. Gehry</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/murray-gell-mann-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Murray Gell-Mann, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-ghosn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Ghosn</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Vince Gill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louise Glück</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Whoopi Goldberg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jane-goodall/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Jane Goodall</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/doris-kearns-goodwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mikhail-s-gorbachev/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mikhail S. Gorbachev</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nadine-gordimer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nadine Gordimer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-greider-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Greider, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-grisham/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Grisham</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-john-gurdon/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir John Gurdon</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dorothy-hamill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dorothy Hamill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/demis-hassabis-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Demis Hassabis, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lauryn Hill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-edmund-hillary/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Edmund Hillary</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/reid-hoffman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reid Hoffman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Howard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-hume/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Hume</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louis-ignarro-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louis Ignarro, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Daniel K. Inouye</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeremy Irons</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-irving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Irving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/kazuo-ishiguro/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Kazuo Ishiguro</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Peter Jackson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/donald-c-johanson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-m-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank M. Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/beverly-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Beverly Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dereck-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dereck Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Kagame</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-lederman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Lederman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernst-mayr-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ralph-nader/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ralph Nader</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-panetta/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Panetta</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/itzhak-perlman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Itzhak Perlman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. Powell, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/harold-prince/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Harold Prince</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/venki-ramakrishnan-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Venki Ramakrishnan, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-martin-rees/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Martin Rees</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lloyd-richards/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lloyd Richards</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-ride-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally K. Ride, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sonny-rollins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonny Rollins</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-romero/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony Romero</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-rosenquist/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Rosenquist</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pete-rozelle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pete Rozelle</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/bill-russell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Bill Russell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/albie-sachs/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Albie Sachs</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/oliver-sacks-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Oliver Sacks, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jonas-salk-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jonas Salk, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frederick-sanger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick Sanger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-b-schaller-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George B. Schaller, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/barry-scheck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Barry Scheck</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-evans-schultes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard Evans Schultes, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-h-norman-schwarzkopf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-schwarzman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen A. Schwarzman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/glenn-t-seaborg-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Glenn T. Seaborg, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/neil-sheehan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Neil Sheehan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-alan-shepard-jr/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral Alan B. Shepard, Jr., USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ellen-johnson-sirleaf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ellen Johnson Sirleaf</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-slim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Slim Helú</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frederick-w-smith/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick W. Smith</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-sondheim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Sondheim</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sonia-sotomayor/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonia Sotomayor</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wole-soyinka/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wole Soyinka</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/esperanza-spalding/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Esperanza Spalding</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/martha-stewart/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Martha Stewart</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-james-b-stockdale/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral James B. Stockdale, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/hilary-swank/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Hilary Swank</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/amy-tan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Amy Tan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dame-kiri-te-kanawa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Kiri Te Kanawa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/edward-teller-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Edward Teller, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/twyla-tharp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Twyla Tharp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wayne-thiebaud/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wayne Thiebaud</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lt-michael-e-thornton-usn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Michael E. Thornton, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20181225135356/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/charles-h-townes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Charles H. 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