After more than six decades of exposing audiences to electric blues, the charismatic guitarist and vocalist B.B. King, born Riley B. King on September 16, 1925, in Itta Bena, Mississippi, passed suddenly on Thursday, May 14, 2015, in Las Vegas. He was 89.
King, the unrivalled spokesperson for the blues, kept up a busy touring schedule far into his late 80s. His trademark playing style, which included a throaty, throttling vocal wail and a ringing single-note vibrato sound on his electric guitar dubbed Lucille, helped to popularize the genre. He garnered 15 Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
How many biological children did B.B. King have?
It is rumoured that he had 15 children.
King was a big spender who indulged in food, ladies (he claimed to have fathered 15 children by 15 separate partners), and gambling, among other vices.
Using fluid string bending, shimmering vibrato, and staccato plucking, he developed a sophisticated soloing technique that had an impact on many electric blues guitarists in the future.
