Hey, Bay-Beh, Keep-On Keep'n-On, with B.B. King by Honore Stockley for AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com, 02-17-05 It's a freezing winter night in the1950s in Twist, Arkansas. In a little club, people are dancing to a young blues guitarist, Riley B. King. The warmth of their moving bodies heats up the place, as does a small kerosene stove in the corner. Two fans begin pushing one another over a woman named Lucille who works in the nightclub. They knock over the stove, and a river of flames engulfs the place. People scramble for the doors. Once outside, the guitarist realizes that he has forgotten his $30 acoustic guitar inside the building. He rushes back into the searing heat. "It was hard to get instruments and I thought only of getting my guitar out of there," says the guitarist, who goes by the name B.B. King these days. King named his guitar after the woman to remind himself never to do something so foolish as rushing into a burning building to save an instrument. King's 51 years as a recording musician and tour stops in 90 countries have ensured that Lucille is a name familiar to blues fans worldwide. Lucille has become a signature model guitar manufactured by Gibson to King's specifications, and she's taken the musician from the juke joints of the South to Carnegie Hall. Today, King, who once made 35 cents per day picking cotton, is a multimillionaire as a result of his music. His most successful album, "Riding with the King," a collaboration with Eric Clapton, came out when King was almost 75. It sold 4.5 million copies worldwide, and it's estimated that, over the course of his career, King has sold more than 40 million records. Mere financial gain, though, is not all that King has earned from his particular version of the blues. He has also been awarded five honorary doctorates from institutions as prestigious as Yale University and the Berklee School of Music. B.B. has played records by artists such as Sarah Vaughan and Frank Sinatra, who one day invited B.B. to share "booze and broads" in Las Vegas. Before he could achieve the level of success that allowed him to hang out with Sinatra, he was told to change his name from Riley King to something catchy. For a while, he performed as Beale Street Blues Boy, then just Blues Boy King, until he finally shortened it to B.B. King. The MP3 player that travels everywhere with him helps remind him why he chose to be a professional musician early in life. He keeps the music of his influences Walker and Jefferson, as well as Lonnie Johnson and Muddy Waters close at hand so that he can revitalize his passion for the blues at the push of a button. King says that listening frequently to his idols ensures that his music does not depart from what he cares most about. In 2004 the King of the Blues is as popular and relevant as ever, constantly bringing a younger, eager audience to appreciate the blues and his special gift for delivering it. He took home two additional Grammy Awards in 2003 for 2002 Best Pop Instrumental Performance for “Auld Lang Syne” and 2002 Best Traditional Blues Album for “A Christmas Celebration of Hope,” adding them to his previous 11 wins. In May of this year he was awarded the The Royal Academy of Music’s Polar Music Prize at a gala Stockholm ceremony. His Majesty King Carl XVI of Sweden awarded the prize to King. A 15,000 square foot, $10 million dollar museum is being built in King’s honor in his hometown, Indianola, Mississippi, where his musical career began and where he returns for a homecoming concert each year. The facility will open in 2005, during the international celebration marking B.B. King’s 80th birthday. He averages over 250 concerts per year around the world, performing every song as if he hasn't played it before. This simple yet highly effective philosophy, shared with his band to prevent songs he has played for decades from becoming stale, underlines why he has continued to nurture an avid international following. "Play it like you feel it," he says, repeating what he tells his band. "Don't try to play it like you recorded it 10 years ago. Play it today, like you feel it now." Photo credit: Making Music Magazine, Syracuse, New York. "www.makingmusicmag.com"