B. B. King Quotes

33 Sourced Quotes

When I first heard how all you British guys loved what we were doing I was thrilled. While the Civil Rights movement was fighting for the respect of black people, I felt I was fighting for the respect of the blues.

B. B. King
I've been married twice. Most women would rather not be married to a traveling blues singer.

B. B. King
Real-life songs, where you feel the hurt and heat between man and woman, have cash value.

B. B. King
Water from the white fountain didn't taste any better than from the black fountain.

B. B. King
I don't have a favorite song that I've written. But I do have a favorite song: "Always on My Mind," the Willie Nelson version. If I could sing it like he do, I would sing it every night.

B. B. King
I don't like anybody to be angry with me. I'd rather have friends. If there's any static or whatever that causes somebody to be mad at me about something or to think I'm at fault about something, I'll get on my knees to apologize. I just believe that life is good like that.

B. B. King
As for my band, well, my mentors were Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Jimmie Lunceford, and no one had a band more smartly dressed than Duke. So I've always had rules that you don't drink on the bandstand, you don't smoke on the bandstand.

B. B. King
Nobody loves me but my mother,
And she could be jiving, too.

B. B. King
If T-Bone Walker had been a woman, I would have asked him to marry me. I'd never heard anything like that before: single-string blues played on an electric guitar. Where we lived we had no electricity, and of course all that I had heard was acoustic players.

B. B. King
I was awarded an honorary doctorate from Yale in 1977 at the same time as the former President Gerald Ford.

B. B. King
I knew that it would be tough. As they always say — if you're white and play the blues, you're black once. If you're black and you play the blues, you're black twice.

B. B. King
Jazz is the big brother of the blues. If a guy's playing blues like we play, he's in high school. When he starts playing jazz it's like going on to college, to a school of higher learning.

B. B. King
I have an excellent medical team. There's Dr Viagra, Dr Cialis, and nurse Levitra. They keep me, er, straight.

B. B. King
In 1995 I was given the Kennedy Center Honors Award and sat with President Clinton. A boy from Mississippi getting a chance to meet the President of the United States — that was something.

B. B. King
Some people say that blues singers are always cryin' in their beer. But you know what? I don't drink.

B. B. King
When I first got the blues,
They brought me over on a ship.
Men was standing over me,
And a lot more with a whip.
And everybody wanna know,
Why I sing the blues.

B. B. King
As long as I'm footin' the bills
I'm paying the cost to be the boss.

B. B. King
Sometimes they'd put a rope down the middle of the dance hall to divide black and white kids. But to make yourself known you had to tour to be heard. We had to take Muhammad to the mountain.I had no choice as I am only good at being a guitarist.

B. B. King
I am married to my music. Blues music is at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to radio. So as long as my health is good and I can handle myself well and people still come to my concerts, I'll keep playing until I feel like I can't. All I want is for people to hear what I do.

B. B. King
The Stones were superstars. I supported them on tour in 1969 and to be able to do something with them was a godsend for me. It probably didn't mean much to them, but it meant a lot to me.

B. B. King
I don't think it's meant for man to know everything at once.

B. B. King
Growing up, I was taught that a man has to defend his family. When the wolf is trying to get in, you gotta stand in the doorway. He has to get through you first before he gets into the house to get your family. I'm one of those guys who wants to be in that door.

B. B. King
The thing about Elvis is that he is a lot more popular now in death than he was when he was alive - but I would rather that they come while I'm here.

B. B. King
I never wanted to be like other blues singers. I might like hearing them play, but I've never wanted to be anyone other than myself. There are a few people that I've wished I could play like, but when I tried, it didn't work.

B. B. King
I had begun to notice something about the difference between blues and gospel. A person would ask me to play a gospel tune and when I'd finished they'd say, 'Keep it up son - you'll be good some day,' and pat me on the shoulder, but they would never tip. But guys who would ask me to play a blues song would always tip and maybe give me a beer as well!

B. B. King
I've never liked the lyrics that rappers use about women — all ladies to me are like angels.

B. B. King
This year, I will do something like 180, 190 concerts. But that's a little less than usual. I had been averaging 230 or 240. In 1956, I did 342 one-nighters. But I was young then, and I was doing something I love to do. I didn't pay any attention until my agents told me at the end of the year: "B. B., do you know how many dates you did?" Even I was surprised at that.

B. B. King
Blues had this bad image about it that made it, along with country music, something that the educated 'majority' would always put down. Blues seemed to be right at the bottom of the totem pole.

B. B. King
The blues was like that problem child that you may have had in the family. You was a little bit ashamed to let anybody see him, but you loved him. You just didn't know how other people would take it.

B. B. King
The guitar I'm playin' is Lucille number sixteen. There's actually a seventeen; they made it for my seventieth birthday. But I never take it out on the road, 'cause it's got my picture on it. I like to sit it up at my house and just look at it.

B. B. King