B.B. King admits to having "stupid fingers." "I've never been able to play chords," said the veteran blues musician from his Tacoma, Wash., hotel room last week, "so I always play like a lead player."
By Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.comBut he's certainly been able to make a comfortable living playing his "git-tar" Lucille lo these many years, alternating between his trademark stinging single-note playing and his emotive growl of a singing voice. And the congenial "King of the Blues" is making his always-welcome return to Hawaii for a four-date interisland tour that starts tomorrow on Kauai.
"If I had my way, I'd love to play there once, or even twice a year, if possible," he said, but King admits that he has been slowing down on the amount of touring he's doing recently.
"Back in 1955, I did 342 one-nighters. Over the bulk of my career, I would average between 240 to 250 shows a year. Now that I'm 76, I've cut back to around 190 concerts a year. And while I make sure that the music my band and I play change with every tour, bringing in some new things, we always make sure to play 'The Thrill Is Gone,' " he said, referring to his signature song.
"We'll be doing songs from around 10 to 15 of my albums, some old, some young like you," he said in his familiar Mississippi drawl. "But we can't do too many, you know -- we're not like superstars where we can play a lot of requests. But there's always that one thing I have to do -- we have to do "The Thrill Is Gone" -- I don't want tomatoes thrown at me if we don't!
"But the secret of playing that song fresh night after night is that I don't do it like I recorded way back when. I do it each night as I feel it."
King's latest album in a long line was last year's Christmas album, his first. "It took a week to do, recorded it in a nice studio in Lafayette, La. Before that, I never did a Christmas album, and what had inspired me to finally do one was after spending a day at City of Hope, a comprehensive cancer center in L.A. They treat people anywhere from young kids 5 to 6 up to adults
"They were the first to discover the use of something I need everyday as a diabetic, which is insulin. So I was proud to give back a little of my time to them. I met some of the kids there, and they wanted to play with me and my git-tar, and it was all I could do to keep from crying.
"I also met parents that were hopeful they could take their children home one day, but you knew some of them weren't going to make it. So I dedicated part of the proceeds of the Christmas album to the City of Hope -- as Jerry Lewis says about his kids (with muscular dystrophy), I did it for love."
King now has a lot to be thankful for, in the form of nightclubs in his name and his grandchildren.
"The B.B. King Blues Club & Grill has five locations," he said proudly. "They're in Memphis, Universal City, Manhattan in New York City and two in Connecticut, located in an Indian casino, said to be largest one in the world. There's one for young people like yourself, and one for old folk like me!"
A highlight for him is his annual Indianola, Miss., homecoming outdoor concerts the first week of June. "Where I grew up, it was a segregated society and today I see these kids in the audience -- black, white, rainbow colors -- it makes me feel great and I get so proud that buttons could pop off my shirt!
"I have 26 grandchildren; one graduated two years ago from the University of Arkansas, got straight As in engineering. One daughter of mine is a blues singer, Shirley King, who lives in Chicago and been doing it now for close to 10 years. At first I thought she went into blues because I'm her father, but she's made a good career for herself."
In the meantime, King continues to spread the gospel of Good Blues. "The reason is that blues records don't get played on the radio like other kinds of music. It's something I learned at an early age. While we do have a lot of fans, I believe in the old saying that since the mountain won't come to Mohammad, Mohammad's got to go to the mountain.
"We've had several superstars in this music, like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Robert Cray, but commercial radio doesn't play that kind of music, even in Las Vegas, where I live. So I take it to the people and I've been lucky to attract good crowds, whether they be from overseas, the continental U.S. or Hawaii. They all get our music!"
Tickets for all shows on the interisland tour are available by calling 526-4400 or online at TicketPlusHawaii.com. B.B. King
Kauai: 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, Kauai Marriott Resort Grand Ballroom. Tickets $40. Call 245-5050.
Oahu: 8 p.m. Friday, Blaisdell Arena. Tickets $30 to $50. Call 591-2211.
Maui: 7 p.m. Saturday, A&B Amphitheater, Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Tickets $30 to $55. Call 242-7469.
Big Island: 8 p.m. Sunday, Hilton Waikoloa Hotel Grand Ballroom. Tickets $45 to $55. Call 886-1234.
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