BB King carried music in his hands and in his heart, joy at the sound of it and commitment to the making of it. All you had to do was hear him for three minutes and you knew that. And he faced down plenty to keep doing it. As the BBC tells it:
He played more than 300 gigs on the so-called Chitlin’ Circuit, the collection of performance venues in what were then racially segregated southern states where it was safe for black musicians to perform.
King said: “I have put up with more humiliation than I care to remember.
“Touring a segregated America, forever being stopped and harassed by white cops hurt you most ‘cos you didn’t realise the damage. You hold it in.”
I met him once, and the memory of that morning haunts me still.
It was, of course, when I worked at the TODAY SHOW (are you sick of those stories yet?) I used to go in early to hang out in the green room when someone I admired was going to be there. Of course, that included the morning BB was coming. He arrived with his musicians – no entourage, no fuss.
That morning, the Canadian singer Anne Murray was also on the show, appearing earlier than Mr. King. As we sat there quietly, watching the show, she told Bryant Gumbel that she was taking “a few months” off from her touring schedule to “recharge.”
King glanced up at the screen, looking sort of sad. “A few months” he said. “I could never do that. I can’t do that.” The disparity of income between blues musicians and the rockers they inspired was well-known, so much so that a foundation was established to help those who never made a dime from their royalties.
Even so, although he told the BBC in 2009, at the age of 83 “I can’t retire, I need the money,” I was never sure if his reason that day was money, or love of the road, but he said it with such longing, and with such an expression of regret, that I can see it right now. Clear as day.
I will always love his music and love his spirit and humor and warmth, and be grateful for his legacy. In my mind though, as he leaves us, it’s that peek into the life of a blues man – even a great one – as he made his way that I remember most.