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B.B. King is known as the king of the blues, his name forever attached to the incredible ability he holds over the electric guitar and his gift to grasp every nuance of his art.
The singer rose to prominence on the R&B scene in the 1950s on RPM records, with an impressive number of hits, including "You Know I Love You," "Sweet Little Angel" and "On My Work and Honor." By 1969, he found a gigantic hit in his remake of the Roy Hawkins track, "The Thrill is Gone," which topped both pop and R&B charts. He continued his success in the late ''70s and early ''80s with singles such as "To Know You is to Love You" and "I Like to Live the Love." He found continued success while some of his peers did not, mostly due to his ability to experiment away from straight blues. The practice certainly paid off - from the beginning of his career through 1985, King saw 74 singles on the Billboard Top R&B charts.
In the past two decades, King has dramatically decreased his recording, focusing more on touring and television appearances - he averages around 300 shows per year. When he does record, though, he seems to prefer duets with artists such as fellow blues great Eric Clapton, with whom he has seemed to form quite a friendship.
In 2006, King celebrated his 80th birthday with a farewell tour, marked by many special guests to commemorate the event. The most important guest throughout his life, though, is "Lucille," the name that he has given his guitars since the beginning of his musical. He found the name after observing a bar fight over a woman named Lucille that eventually started a fire. After escaping unharmed, King had to run back inside to save his guitar from destruction - and he named it Lucille to remind himself never to do it again.
King has played at least 15,000 performances throughout his career, and is known by Rolling Stone Magazine as the Greatest Living Guitarist, ranked just behind the deceased Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman.
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