Still the king in the land of blues

B.B. King

Tickets

B.B. King, with Marco Joachim as the opening act, will perform at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 26, in the Georgia Neese Gray Performance Hall at the Topeka Performing Arts Center, 214 S.E. 8th. Tickets, which are $42.50, $37.50 and $32.50, can be purchased at the TPAC box office in person or by telephone, 297-9000, or through Ticketmaster, 234-4545, and all of its outlets.

B.B. King: Blues guitar master answers three questions in advance of Tuesday concert at TPAC

By Scott Cooper

Special to The Capital-Journal

Long before Riley B. King changed his name to B.B., he was just another King. Now, at 76 years of age, he is the King, an undeniable master of blues guitar.

After decades of directly or indirectly influencing virtually every guitar player in the Western world with his perfect, concise riffs, B.B. King stands today as solid gold.

Every few years, radio catches wind of his collaborations with Eric Clapton, U2 or some other modern star, but King continues to release quality though unheralded solo releases with his trusted Gibson guitar, Lucille. His latest is a holiday record titled, "A Christmas Celebration of Hope."

The blues legend, who performs Tuesday night at the Topeka Performing Arts Center, spoke with contributor Scott Cooper and confirmed that the thrill is indeed not gone.

Question: After so many years, you've finally released your first Christmas record. Why did you wait so long?

King: I think it's politics in music. When the time is right, you get to go ahead and do that. With my company, which is a conglomerate, I guess they just wasn't ready for it at the time. So I couldn't do it until they said, "OK." I don't ever want to do something and they just put it on the shelf. So whenever I do record I want to be able to do something and for it be released. So they gave us the go-ahead and I was gladly running for it. I guess everything comes in time.

Question: Do you think your audience wants to hear the old classics or wants to hear new material?

King: I think they like both. Everybody wasn't around when I made "Three O'clock Blues." It's a long, long space between "Three O'clock Blues" and shall we say the Christmas CD. So I feel there are people who would like to hear some of the things that were done during the "Thrill Is Gone," and some after and some before.

I know people that I like, I like some of their older stuff as well as I do their new things. I think that it's proper that you do a concert and you try to do some of all. There are people that feel that if you record a new CD you should play the whole darn thing in your concert, but I wouldn't want to go to none of them concerts because if you've been doing things that I know about, I want to hear some of those, too. Be glad that you make a new CD but still give me some of my favorites.

Question: Has your guitar playing has changed over the years?

King: I think I've gotten better. It's hard to think that I got worse. Some people say practice makes perfect. I'll probably never be perfect because I never do that much practicing, but I play a lot.

It's hard to not learn something when you're playing as I do. You gotta learn something because each night I don't try to play the tunes like I did in the studio when I was making them. I try to play the tune, yes, but I try to do it as I'm feeling it now, not like I was in the studio cause I don't remember how I felt.

That night I want to do it the best that I can do, feeling the best that I can feel, and try to play the song, try to play the tune, and try to get people to enjoy it.

[music]

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