B. B. KING

MUSIC ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• 50 albums
• 15 Grammies

EARLY LIFE

• Born as Riley King
• 9/16/25
• On a plantation
• His parents separated in 1931 and he moved with his mother
• Mother died in 1935
• At 14 he began his life as an adult because his grandmother died

EARLY LIFE CONT.

• He played his first guitar at his church as a kid.
• It was his pastor's guitar
• After half a year of sharecropping on his grandmothers old land his goes to live with his father
• After a little he goes from place to place studying and working

START IN MEMPHIS

• Moves to West Mem. In 1948
• Plays a song on KWEM and gets a gig 16th street grill
• Gains a 15 min spot at the black radio WDIA
• He later becomes popular in the radio and gains the name Blues Boy or B. B.
• He was the talk of the town

Untitled Slide

• Really took off with the white crowd after mike Bloomfield gave B.B. credit for why he knows how to play blues

MEMPHIS HOME OF THE BLUES

KING OF THE BLUES

• B. B. earned the title the king of the blues and Memphis was his round table
• His impact on Memphis gave way to so many other amazing African American musicians and to a ton of their culture

Untitled Slide

• B. B. King's first club was opened right here on the culturally historical beale street

B B King is so deep in (white and black) Memphis culture that the city of Memphis declared May 12th as "BB King day" after he died

BEALE STREET CROWDED AS B. B. KING GOES DOWN BEALE ONE MORE TIME