American Masters

MAN

The world's greatest blues singer, the King of the Blues -- B.B. King!

Cheers and applause

MAN

FREEMAN

In 1925, on a hot, sticky Wednesday in the middle of September, the cries of a newborn baby rang out from sharecropper's cabin over the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta.

Baby crying

FREEMAN

A boy was born that day that was going to make a difference. His name -- Riley B. King.

Thunder rumbles

RAITT

There's no music in the world that cuts emotionally the way that blues guitar can cut.

G. BENSON

When you say "blues" and you say "B.B. King," you've said it all. That's the top of the line. That's it.

SANTANA

Sincere, honest, true, for real, and genuine. Those five things. If you have those five things, then you can play the blues. Otherwise, you're going to sound like a parakeet repeating something that you don't understand.

BONO

He's great in every way. Just the girth of the man is great.

WILLIS

He's played probably in every country where they have electricity, and probably a couple where they don't.

MAYER

B.B. King is gone when he's playing. B.B. King's been gone in the world of the blues, just living in that ether for so long that he belongs to it.

Rhythmic clapping

KING

Hey!

Finale plays

Cheers and applause

Whistling

KING

Thank you very much. To be here where somebody can truly say, "B, this is where you were born. This is where the world first knew about you, right here," is a high for me, 'cause I feel very good. My mother was named Nora Ella.

My father was named Albert Lee. But for a young couple that hadn't been married too long and their first kid coming out, they lived not too far back over here. And I believe my mother loved me and I loved her, and everything she tried to teach me, I tried to learn. My mom left and moved to Kilmichael, Mississippi.

I noticed that my mother had big spots of blood clots in her eye. She died of diabetes the same as her son have, this one. I had been living with other people all of my life since my mom. Their roots, as they sometimes say, I think my beginning was Elkhorn School.

At that time, I had to walk about five miles a day to school.

MATTHEWS

Four months' school did not provide much education on a plantation. He said, "I'm a big boy. I ought to be in the field, not in school."

KING

I was a regular hand from the time I was 7 years old. See, they used to didn't have no child labor laws and all that. So I was doing farm work just like the adults was was when I was 7. I started about what we call from "can to can't." "Can" means when you can see, "can't" when you cannot see.

Ooh, Lord, ain't my troubles so hard Ooh, Lord, my troubles so hard

MATTHEWS

Out of that condition, the blues were born.

KING

Usually one guy would be plowing by himself, or maybe one guy would take his hoe and chop way out in front of everybody else. And usually, you would hear this guy sing. Oh, I wake up in the morning

BLAND

That's the only time you'd get a chance to sing the blues is out in the field because your parents didn't allow that in the house. Nothing but spirituals. So if you're picking cotton, you can sing whatever you want to sing, you know?

FREEMAN

To play that music and not invoke the name of Jesus or God, I guess, then who are you invoking? The Devil.

TROUT

A lot of people in the church, they go through this thing that it's the Devil's music, but the way he plays and the way he sings, that is a gift from God. And if you are at all religious, you will believe that he has that gift and that he was touched when he was, you know, in the womb.

FAIR

When he joined the church, well, Archie was a preacher. My brother-in-law was a preacher. He preached his church out.

KING

Reverend Archie Fair was our pastor and the first person I ever heard play electric guitar, and that's why I wanted to be like him.

FAIR

In the church, this boy would get a chance to play on Archie's guitar a little.

KING

This preacher, after church on a Sunday afternoon, would visit his sister, which was my aunt. And he'd always lay this guitar on the bed, and I'd go get it as soon as they turned their backs. So I think this is really what started me to fooling with the guitar, not by listening to some of the other people. He was a preacher and a teacher, and I liked him, worshiped him.

When my grandmother died, I still stayed in the little house that my grandmother and I had lived in before she died. I felt deserted. Nobody but me. And I remember she owed something like $35, $40 or something, but we didn't make much money.

I was making $15 a month, so... But I paid my grandmother's bill. I paid it off myself. After my daddy got me and brought me to Lexington, Mississippi, and I started going to school there, which was the first big school I'd ever gone to.

He had three girls and a boy, and those was my sisters and brother. My daddy never told me he loved me. Never did. But anytime he was very pleased, I had that feeling.

He called me "Jack" out of the clear blue sky. "Jack, what do you think about this?" Or "What do you think about that?" And I'd feel so good till I'd almost cry, 'cause I knew what that meant.

MATTHEWS

In those days, it was oppression, and you'd be depressed by the oppression because you had no rights. Black folk had no rights. You were not black then. You were Negroes or niggers.

KING

But to know me And for you that don't know it, this citizen council, White Citizens' Council, began in Indianola, Mississippi -- my home.

HENSON

Our place was to work hard and obey the white man.

KING

That was one of my first days of really experiencing what segregation was really like. A mob had killed a boy. They'd hung him. It had to do with a white lady, you know.

They had castrated him and drug him behind a car to the courthouse in Lexington, Mississippi -- Lexington. And I saw it. And that's something I've never forgotten, I guess, It's something like seeing people killed in the war. You don't forget it.

MATTHEWS

You were just a thing, not a human being, just a work thing. They had a slogan, "If a mule die, buy another one."

KING

"Kill a nigger, hire another one," and that's the way I was brought up.

MATTHEWS

And that meant you were nobody. You just about equal to a mule. It was badder than bad.

EVERS

We all were subject to racism and bigotry and hatred and denial. None of us could get a drink of water at a public water fountain. So yes, he faced the same thing that all of us faced. There was racism, bigotry, and hatred.

But let me add this, though. Let me say this to you about B.B. He never let that turn him against white people.

FREEMAN

Young Riley King started dreaming of life back in the Delta. The Delta was home. So late in 1941, 16-year-old Riley jumped on his bicycle and began to pedal his way home, back to where his heart belonged.

KING

I came to the Barrett Plantation. So what he did -- he hired a black overseer named Mr. Baggett, Booker Baggett. And we worked like crazy because we wanted to keep him.

And Mr. Baggett is the one that taught me to drive tractors. Then is the time that I decided I wanted to get married, and I got married to a young lady.

DAVIS

To Martha King. In that year, we lived in a house together. We lived in a three-room shotgun house. Two doors, one in front and one in back.

KING

Saturdays was my day. Go to town on Saturdays and have a good time.

CLAY

People were in and out, gambling and doing what little dancing they were doing. If you didn't get on Church Street, you wouldn't be in Indianola.

KING

I came in in a hurry on my way to go to a church to sing that night. I'd been plowing, plowing, plowing, and then it happened. We got off that evening. I cut this ignition off of the tractor, and I jumped down and start running to get ready to go out, and it started up again.

And when the tractor started up again, it went forward, and all of this broke off. Scared me half to death. I never did stop running, and that's the first time I went to Memphis. And I'm walkin' Walkin' and cryin' When I came to Memphis and started hearing all those other guys play, I found out I wasn't nothing.

That much. I'm still like that today.

WHITE

Dead from your eyes

FREEMAN

Once in Memphis, B.B. King sought and found his cousin, the great bluesman Bukka White.

KING

Bukka was born up around West Point, Mississippi, and a lot of people say he taught me to play, but that's not true. But he did teach me quite a bit about being a blues player. Bukka White used to tell me that to be a blues singer, you should always dress like you was trying to go to the bank to borrow money. Which means you dressed, well, a word musicians use, kind of sharp, you know.

And he used to play with a slide on his finger. And I could never get that. I've got stupid fingers. They just wouldn't work.

So in order to get somewhat the type sound that he had, I would trill my hand, like that. And I think over the years, I've done pretty good with it. I still don't have it right. I stayed up there for about six to eight months, and then I called some of family back and I said, "Tell Mr.

Barrett I'm sorry. And I would like to work and pay it off." Well, with wobbly legs, I came back, and I think it cost me $500 or $600, and I paid it off. And the next time I left to go to Memphis to start my career, I started it correctly. Whoa, Lord What a beautiful city Oh, what a beautiful city When we left Mississippi going to Memphis, we expected many, many things to happen, and it did.

The late Sonny Boy, the second Sonny Boy Williamson, he was on the radio in West Memphis, Arkansas. I decided I wanted to go and see him one day, and one day I did. And when I went over to see him, I begged him to let me sing a song So he made me audition, and I did, and he liked it, and he put me on the show that day. And that night, he had two jobs to play.

One of them he didn't want because it didn't pay much money. So he called the lady and asked the lady that he was supposed to play for, did she hear the program? She said yes. So I went over there, man, and they paid me $12 -- 12 American dollars.

That's a lot of bread, you know, for a guy that had been making like 35 cents a hundred picking cotton, you know? She said, "If you can get a job on the radio, like Sonny Boy has, I'll give you this job, and you can play six nights a week." And I thought about that and said, "God, I hope I can get me in a job on the radio." Well, I'm just a blues singer, a tractor driver, a truck driver. I was a disc jockey for a while. I sing the blues because I lived it.

You're probably wondering, "That guy, the way you talk, you're a disc jockey?" Trust me. I was for about five years. This is B.B. King making a statement and a natural fact.

WDIA. Everybody want to know why I sing the blues. The first all-black operated station in the Mid South, in fact, I think in the nation.

Radio tuning

THOMAS

It's a good, good morning to you on an all-blues Saturday here on WDIA with your Rufus Thomas.

KING

This new radio station was being opened in Memphis, so when the red light went off the air I went to the window and I knocked. So he came to the door and said, "What can I do for you, young fella?" And I said, 'Well, I want to make a record and I want to go on the radio,'" and he laughed. And Mr. Ferguson said, "Well, we don't make records," and then he had this deep look -- thought look on his face.

And he said to Mr. Williams, he said, "You know, we've got this new product." He said, "Maybe he would be good for this new product." So he went and got me a bottle, and he held it up like this. He said, "This is Pep-Ti-Kon. Do you think you could write a jingle for it?" I started to thinking about it, and I said, "Yes, sir, I can write a jingle." So it went like this.

Pep-Ti-Kon sure is good Pep-Ti-Kon sure is good Pep-Ti-Kon sure is good You can get it anywhere in your neighborhood He said, "You're hired."

Laughs

KING

MAN

Blues Boy King. Blues Boy, who -- Did your dad name you that?

KING

No, I used to be a disc jockey in Memphis, and they called me the Boy from Beale Street, the Blues Boy. So people, instead of saying Blues Boy, they just started using the word "B.B.," which meant Blues Boy. And my real name is Riley B. King.

Now most times if someone would come up and say, "Hi, Riley," I would wonder who they're taking about.

LOCKWOOD

I taught him the best I could. A lot of times he didn't understand what I was telling him, But when I put him with a group that put pressure on him and he had to learn. You can't work with nobody without you knowing. You see where the bass player is right now when you see B.B.

playing? The bass player's right behind him. That's what he listens to. Now you know.

KING

In fact, it's like -- I usually tell the band like I have today -- "You know a lot more than I do and you play better than I do, but I'm the band leader."

LOCKWOOD.

B.B. was just learning how to play, but he always could sing and he finally learned how to play.

RAITT

You can look at B.B. King's life and listen to his music from the beginning until the end and in one career and one man's contribution, you can really have the whole ball of wax of what's important and what will endure, because there's no records more seminal than B.B. King's important contribution as a guitar player and as a singer and those records have always stood the test of time.

MAN

I've always wanted to meet Helen.

KING

Helen? Who's Helen?

MAN

Helen, Helen, uh, your guitar, you know. When you start playing --

KING

Oh, you're talking about Lucille? This is Lucille. That's my baby.

Laughter

MAN

That's not the guitar I saw you with last night, B.B.

Laughter

KING

The first one that was named Lucille was because of a fight in a little night club. So, this particular night, two guys started to fight and one of them knocked the other one over on this container and the fuel spilled on the floor and it was already burning, so they tried to put it out. It seemed to burn more. Everybody in the little club that was dancing started to run outside, including me.

But when I got on the outside, I remembered that I had ran off and left my guitar. So I started back for it and the fellas there that were working with me said, "No, don't to it." But I went anyway. And I got my guitar, but I was almost burned to death trying to save it. So the next morning, we found that two men had gotten burned, got trapped in the building, got burned to death.

And we also found that these two guys was fighting about a lady. The lady's name was Lucille. I named the guitar Lucille to remind me not to do a thing like that again, and I haven't.

Laughs

KING

Now, darling You know I love you

FREEMAN

Beale Street entrepreneur Robert Henry started to look after the interests of B.B. King. This resulted in a national tour of the main black theaters and clubs, known as the Chitlin' Circuit. The road was no place for a marriage.

The road was B.B. King's new home.

DAVIS

And he called me and said, "'Cile," I said, "Yes?" He said "Martha's done left me." I said, "Girl, why you leaving?" And she said, "'Cause he won't stay at home. He playing -- going everywhere." I said, "Girl, you crazy. You should stay with your husband." But she didn't.

OWENS

This business is a very difficult business, but I couldn't live without it and I don't think he could live without it, either. Oh, gone and left me, baby For someone else

KING

A little bit later on, after I had been touring for a while, then I turned the disc jockey loose and just toured. And I'm still doing that.

P. WALKER

At the time when B.B. got his first bus, there was excitement because coming out of a station wagon into a big Continental Trailway bus was just a marvelous feat for the group. And it was something that none of the other groups had, either.

WITHERS

This is the original picture of the B.B. King Band on Beale Street in 1955.

C. WALKER

I think everybody knows this band as the B.B. King Band. This the B.B. King Band.

No matter how many bands he goes through, this will always be the B.B. King Band.

OWENS

We were bad.

Laughter

OWENS

Yeah, we were good. On the seat, you would have a box of food like pork and beans and sardines and crackers and that kind of stuff, because a lot of times you wouldn't have time to eat at a restaurant or caf, per se. And it was very difficult because a lot of the places you couldn't go in anyway.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.

WITHERS

Desegregation of America didn't start until the '60s, and B.B. had been on a roll for a good 10, 12 years before that.

OWENS

We just played everywhere -- Apollo Theater to the honky-tonk joints, all over the country.

GUY

Well, B was always on the road. He's the only guy, I think -- I think he had a record that he plays 365 days one year. And I'd tell him all the time, "I don't want that record." He can keep that one. You know?

DR. JOHN

I used to work like 320 days a year. B.B. worked more gigs.

OWENS

I don't know where he gets the energy from. I mean, this man works more than anybody because the road is his home.

KING EVANS

No night off. 365 days a year. Some days we didn't even get a chance to go to sleep. I've got a sweet little angel I love the way sh e spreads her wings He told me he wasn't going to ask my mom to get married because he felt that she would say no, and he didn't want that.

So he said, "We'll just have to wait until you get 18." So I said, "Okay," and that's what we did. And he was in Detroit at the time. Actually, I was 18 in March, but he wanted to put off getting married until June when we were in Detroit because he wanted Reverend Franklin, who was Aretha Franklin's father, to marry us. So we waited until we got to Detroit, got the license, and Reverend Franklin married us.

BONO

All I know is he he'd be a hard man to have a relationship with because he's moving so fast. I mean, the dude sits down when he's playing, but he is running through the year.

KING EVANS

After we got married, we got in the car, went to Cleveland, he went to work, and we just kept going after that. Just one day led into another. Please tell me th e reason why

RODGERS

One of the things that B.B. has is a great rapport with the audience, you know, I mean, he did that song -- I bought you a brand-new Ford And you wanted a Cadillac I bought you a $10 dinner You said, "T hanks for the snack" I let you stay in my penthouse and you said it was just a shack. I gave you seven children And now you want to give 'em back And now you want to gi ve them back Yes, I've been down-hearted, baby

SANTANA

If you want to hear B.B. King, the crme de la crme, like Dexter Gordon would say, "Listen to "Live at the Regal," and every note, every word, every song, everything is a perfect, flawless diamond.

TROUT

All of us in this genre or all of us in any kind of roots music, we take what came before us.

KING

One of my favorites, real favorites, was Django Reinhardt.

TRUCKS

The last two or three generations are all students of B.B. Everybody from B.B.'s generation are all students of T-Bone. I mean, he really was the guy, you know?

KING

Well just before I went in the Army, about '42, I think, I heard of a guy called T-Bone Walker.

T-BONE WALKER

I'm in love with a woman But she's not in love with me

KING

And I imagine today if you listen to my playing, you'll hear a little bit of all of them. I'm telling my secrets. But I think a little bit of all of those people I liked, with my own ideas, created the B.B. King twangy guitar sound, maybe.

KING EVANS

It's tough because usually divorces come because of cheating or you fall out of love or you have money problems, and we had all those things and we survived them, but the love always stayed.

KING

If you're going to be a traveling musician, marriage should be something you wouldn't want to do until you're not traveling a lot, because there's very few travelling musicians that I know that have been able and successful in marriage life.

KING EVANS

It's very difficult to have a family life with someone who's working on the road 365 days a year.

KING

'Cause the nice thing is when you are married. The terrible thing when you're being divorced. It's awful. Got to go to work this morning Seems like everything is lost I got a cold-hearted...

SEIDENBERG

He came to me, I didn't come to him.

MAN

Right.

SEIDENBERG

And he was brought to me because he had financial problems -- big time.

KING

Sid helped me out. He helped me get out of trouble with the government and a few other things. So I said, "Well, look, you're my CPA, but you've been doing everything that my manager should do. Well, why don't you be my manager?" In fact, I asked him.

He didn't ask me.

WINTERS

Well, I was 17 at a little club in Beaumont called The Raven. I had a fake I.D. and got in.

KING

We were playing, and I saw these four white people come in, and one was extra white. Jonny Winters.

WINTERS

We were the only white people in the club, and he'd been having tax problems, and he thought we were from the IRS come to bust him for his taxes.

KING

So I was so shocked and surprised that it wasn't about the IRS, it took me a little while to kind of get my feet back on the ground, you know?

WINTERS

He kept saying, "Well, we have arrangements." And I was like, "I've heard all your records. I know all your arrangements." He asked to see my union card. He really checked me out.

KING

I let him sit in, and he was good. I'll tell you. He was good.

WINTERS

It's just that he's a saint. He's a blues saint.

CRAY

The first chance to play in front of a white audience it's like, "Who are these people?"

KING

I'm grateful that some of them seemed to like me. I'm grateful because to me, it seemed to open a few doors for us that seemed like they was never going to be opened. So I sent my road manager and told them to go and tell Bill I was there, but I thought it was the wrong place, so we were going to leave. So Bill came back out with the road manager and came on the bus.

He said, "No, you're at the right place."

SANTANA

I happened to be there. The opening act was Otis Rush and Steve Miller and B.B. King.

KING

And he said, "Ladies and gentlemen," and would you believe that when he said that, you could hear a pin drop. He said, "I bring you the Chairman of the Board, B.B. King." I've never been introduced like that before or since. When he mentioned my name, they all stood up.

And I was so touched till I cried standing up there.

SANTANA

It was like watching a chandelier. All I could see was his tears and the diamond ring that he had -- to wipe his tears. And I was still washing dishes at the time. I was living with my mom.

And when I saw B.B. receive that kind of adulation, that kind of honor, I said, "This is what I want."

KING

So I felt weird. It felt real weird. But I did it. And after that, I cried back up the stairway.

SEIDENBERG

It's like when Nat King Cole broke through and they accepted him, so we kept doing that after the initial '68 period, working The Fillmore, working colleges. And then all of a sudden, we were able to book B.B. into these rock 'n' roll clubs and other venues that never had black entertainers before.

DR. JOHN

And it shifted a couple of gears there, right there, and B.B. could do whatever the hell he wanted to do.

KING

The thrill has gone away You know you done me wrong, baby And you're gonna be sorry someday

SZYMCZYK

I figured if I could take some different players and put them around B.B. that something good would happen. Very shortly after that, it was only like eight months later, we were scheduled to do another album and I said, "I'd like to do it all with them, B." He said, "Sure, let's do it all that way." And the big success that resulted out of the second album was "The Thrill is Gone."

KING

The thrill is gone The thrill is gone away

STARR

John actually brought in "The Thrill Is Gone" and played it to all of us. I have that great memory of that.

BIHARI

B.B. had really a million-selling record then, and that really put B.B. King into a different category completely. I am the little red rooster Too lazy to crow for day

FRANCE

Sid was a big proponent of exposing B.B. to other audiences, so sometimes he took dates that were not as lucrative financially. Too lazy to crow for day

WYMAN

We never saw B.B. or had anything to do with B.B. until '69 when we took him on tour. Hounds begin to howl He'd take the band right down to a whisper, and it was amazing.

You'd just hear the ting-ting with the little guitar lines, and then he'd build and build and build into this massive sort of sound with the band.

Applause

KING

Ha! Thank you! The many people that I hadn't played to or hadn't heard of me started to, I think, listen to me and pay attention to me from that tour. If you see my little red rooster

TAYLOR

They themselves would be the first ones to admit that they started out as a blues band. They were always very good at paying homage to the blues artists that influenced them.

JAGGER

We went to record at the legendary Chess Studios, which was on South Michigan Avenue.

RICHARDS

Yeah, they wanted to know, like, how we were doing it and why we wanted to do it. You know? "Why you want to play like me?" Well, it happens to be very good stuff.

Laughs

RICHARDS

You know? And one day I might get there.

JAGGER

They were very, very generous to us, and they passed on all the tips and gave us all the help and they were very, very kind. And I want to salute those guys. Most of them are not with us anymore. Of course, one is, B.B.

King, who I --

Cheers and applause

JAGGER

SZYMCZYK

The only tune I ever brought in that I asked B.B. to do, and that was "Hummingbird," the Leon Russell song, and to get Leon to come and play with B.B. You know, getting people to come play with B.B. was never a problem.

WALSH

I played on a song called "Hummingbird" that Leon Russell wrote.

RUSSELL

He plays those little obbligatos -- when he sings and he plays a lick, then he sings and he plays another lick. It turns out he does that when he talks, too. So he was talking to me and, "One time I was down in Tuscaloosa..." Da, da, dum And I listened to it a couple times, and then I started playing the background to it. And they're not all the same.

They're not in the same keys. They're not the same groove or anything. And so he had finished it. We'd finished the song, what key, whatever it was, we played the ending.

He didn't say anything, And he'd start talking about something else, and he'd play something else and I'd play that background. We got into about the third one, and B.B. started crying. He said, "I've never had that before." So that's very touching to me.

I was such a student of his. I knew what he meant when he said those things on the guitar, so it was the greatest compliment.

FREEMAN

In 1971, B.B. King flew the nest and ventured on his first overseas tour. This cumulated in a collaborative album called "B.B. King in London." And I love her just the same

KING

No, just accent with the break Okay, we're starting again from the top so you get a feel of what I'm talking about. Not the top -- the top of the last one. Okay? Fast movin' baby I can't do nothing to slow you down Your speed is supersonic, mama And you're faster than sound No, no

STARR

When B.B. came to London to make that album, "B.B. in London," I was invited to play. It was just incredible.

We're playing away, and B.B. sort of looks at me. And I thought, "Oh, he wants to end the song," so I -- Ba-da-bum-ba-be-dub bum. And he goes, "Too good to lose," and we came right in again, It was like, "Oh, my God!" It was so great.

We just kicked it in again. And he did pay me a huge compliment in those sessions because he called me. "Hey, Ringo, you were just like a clock -- tick-tock, tick-tock."

TEDESCHI

He just had everything -- everything that you'd want out of a performer, you know? He had the energy, the charisma, you know? He's handsome. He's got beautiful tone.

Everything had a meaning, Every note just like a punch, you know?

Cheers and applause

LEVINE

In 1974, I produced a big event. I stepped out of my usual life and produced this big event in Zaire in 1974 that surrounded the fight between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. And I brought B.B. over.

A few years later, I got a call from B.B. saying that he really needed to make a record and would I be interested? We made our first record with B.B. The magic of recording is the danger in recording.

When someone's played something for three years and they come up and walk into a studio and play it, they know it. They've been through it so many times. But when they're engaging it for the first time and if can capture that moment, you've got yourself something special.

KING

Oh, you know I'm having so much trouble, people Baby, I wonder, yes, I wonder Baby, I wonder Oh, I wonder what in the world's gonna happen to me

Cheers and applause

KING

Thank you!

FREEMAN

Many people tend to slow down in their 60s. Not B.B. King. His next collaboration with a young band from Ireland was about to propel B.B.

to a whole new audience.

MAN

Well, you tour with The Rolling Stones and then you go with the popular group of now, and that's with Bono and U2. Huh?

Laughs

KING

My number one.

Where the Streets Have No Name" plays

Cheers and applause

BONO

Keith Richards played blues records to us, and I began this kind of journey to discover who were the greats. And B.B. King's not just, you know, great, He's like great.

Cheers and applause

BONO

Believe it or not, B.B. King came to Dublin, Ireland, and he was playing in this club in Dublin, Ireland, and we wrote this song for him. This is called "When Love Comes to Town." I gave it my absolute, you know, everything I had in that howl at the start of the song, and then B.B. King opened up his mouth and I felt like a girl.

Now I stand accused of the things I've said

BOTH

When love comes to town I'm gonna jump that train When love comes to town I'm gonna catch that flame Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down But I did what I did before love came to town

BONO

We had learnt. We'd absorbed. But the more we tried to be like B.B., the less convincing we were.

KING

I'm no good with chords, so what we do is get somebody else to play chords.

BONO

Sure. Well, Edge will do that. There's not much chords in this song. I think there's only two.

KING

I'm horrible with chords.

BONO

When we were working on "When Love Comes to Town," we were sitting around and we were showing him the chords. And he said, "Gentlemen... gentlemen... I don't do chords.

I do this."

KING

I don't know what to do there. I'm just gonna --

BONO

Just go ahead, yeah. Is that a joke?

Laughs

BONO

But there was this great sense of camaraderie in his band and it was a joy, just a joy to share a stage with B.B. King, that rich, brassy sound they had behind them with the horn section and -- And then his grace, you know? He's a lesson in grace. The debt is very much in his direction.

CLAPTON

The character of any great musician is usually identifiable by the individuality of their vibrato. Most players are recognizable by that particular facet of their playing, and that's how I would know B.B.'s playing. Hit one note -- I can tell B.B. from one note.

You know, most of us can, I think.

TAYLOR

I'd say that's true, yeah. I mean, his sound is completely unique to him.

MAYALL

If you can just play one note and somebody else can say -- recognize who that is.

BLAND

One note, you know that's him and Lucille.

WILLIS

He can take one note and make it so sexy.

CLAPTON

One note, you know, is all it takes.

BONAMASSA

The note with the vibrato.

One note. -TRUCKS

One note.

LANG

In one note.

SANTANA

That note is not in the amplifier and it's not -- It's not even at his fingers. It's coming from the center of his heart. You know, I can hear B.B. King with the sound off on the TV, just by looking at his face.

Cheers and applause

GUY

I remember Eric Clapton was on CNN, and they asked him who he had never played with. And B.B. evidentially was watching it because I was, and he said, "B.B. King."

CLAPTON

The first time I met him, I sat and played with him. There are pictures of me and him sitting on amplifiers. It was a long time ago. It's '66, '67.

BOTH

I dreamed I had a good job

KING

The CD he did with me called "Riding with the King," he named it, I didn't. He had the ideas, most of the ideas for it.

CLAPTON

"Next year, don't do anything during that period and we'll do it." And he stuck to it, you know. It was a commitment we both kept.

KING

"Whatever you think is good, we'll try it." And we did.

CLAPTON

So I thought best thing to do is I'll just -- We'll just go into the room with a couple of acoustic guitars and see what comes out.

KING

And they were good. Everything. Except trying to make me play acoustic guitar. I didn't like that.

Laughs

Laughs

BOTH

Don't you know you're riding with the King?

FREEMAN

In 2008, Indianola showed its gratitude and opened the B.B. King Museum. Every year, tens of thousands of people visit from all over the world to this little town in Mississippi to share one of the greatest journeys ever told.

BONO

You know, the only person who doesn't think B.B.'s great is probably B.B.

Cheers and applause

KING

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Cheers and applause intensify

KING

People call me King of the Blues. I've heard it many, many times. Do you think I think that? No, I do not.

I think there's a lot of people that can do exactly what I do and a lot of them can do it better. They're just not me. Did you ever hear a church bell tone? Ever hear a church bell tone?

Did you ever hear a church bell tone? Then you know that old B is dead and gone

L. TONEY

He never forgets old friends. If he's aware of a situation with one, or an old band member who -- He considers them all family, current and past.

JAMES

He cares about people. He loves people.

LOCKWOOD

And I think he was the most easygoing person I ever seen.

NEVILLE

He wanted to share his talent and his soul with the world, and that's what he did.

DR. JOHN

He's a one of a kind.

RAITT

I mean, he's just like -- You know? Unbelievable.

WYMAN

There's only one B.B.

BONO

For true greatness to take place, there requires a long obedience in the same direction.

KING

I can't tell anybody what I want to hear, but I have a -- I hear it myself, but I can't play it. I don't know how to really get it myself. I think sometimes the sound that I hear has never been the sound that I want to hear, if I make sense. It is a little sound that I hear but I can't tell anybody about it.

When I hear what I would like to hear, if ever, I think I'd have to stop because it probably won't sound as good as I'm thinking it will.

Laughs

RAITT

I think that as a lesson in living, you can look at B.B. and also learn what it's like to be a man and get through all those difficult times he had and come through with the heart that he still has. That's no mean accomplishment.

KING

I don't think I've done the best that I could have done. I thought I had. I thought that I did everything the best I could, but when I look back, I see there are some slacks. You can do better.

L. TONEY

I've never told him, but I sometimes call him the father of us all, because that's the way I see him. It's very difficult to find words to say.

Sniffles

L. TONEY

Excuse me.

MATTHEWS

He sang the blues and did a great job of it and rose to a great height, were even invited by kings and potentates from where he was.

KING

I've never met a king before, so I'm a bit nervous but also grateful, so grateful.

Speaking Italian

POPE JOHN PAUL II

I said, "Holy Father, I know you're always doing things for others, so I want to do something for you, Sir," I said. "I'd like to offer my guitar to you." He took it himself. He stepped and took it from the guy, and he smiled again. Then he said, "Happy holidays to you and your family, B.B." Oh, my God!

He said "B.B." Lead me on, Lord To the light Take my hand Precious Lord Lead me home

PRESIDENT OBAMA

You know, some nights when you want to go out and just take a walk, clear your head, or jump into a car just to take a drive, you can't do it. Secret Service won't let you, and that's frustrating. But then there are other nights where B.B. King and Mick Jagger come over to your house...

Laughter

PRESIDENT OBAMA

...to play for a concert. Come on Baby, don't you wanna go

Cheering

KING

Same old place

PRESIDENT OBAMA

Sweet home Chicago

Cheers and applause

BARBOUR

Now it's my honor, as Governor of the state of Mississippi, to proclaim February 15, 2005 as B.B. King Day for the entire state of Mississippi. And I urge all citizens to join me and the legislature in celebrating and honoring this great Mississippian.

Applause

KING

I am so happy. Thank you.

Cheers and applause

EVERS

The only thing about the blues since B.B.'s gone, like everything else, the world goes on. It's not gonna stop because B.B. King leave, but it will never be the same. But I'm here to tell you B.B.

is leaving a legend that's gonna be hard to be beat.

Crying

P. WALKER

We just got a B.B. King in our life. And there ain't nothing else like him.

KING

When I start to sound as bad as I think I will when I get a certain age...

Laughs

KING

I hope that it, you know, that a little bell will ring in my head that says "Time to stop." But other than that, I'll wait till the great one upstairs takes me away.

FREEMAN

What makes somebody great, somebody special? When you look at a man's life, can you truly say that man made a difference? People say folk are born that way or were blessed by a higher force.

KING

Play the best that I can, reach as many people as I can, as many countries -- In other words, I'd like the whole world to be able to hear B.B. King sing and play the blues. I swear by stars above I'll keep my word, my love - You're sitting there looking proud And thinking you're so fine You're trying to run around With each and every friend of mine You're thinking you're so smart, baby And think that I'm a fool But baby, let me tell you, you'd better play it cool You'll never miss your wallet, baby... -To learn more about B.B.

King and other American masters, visit PBS.org/americanmasters, or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. "B.B.

King

The Life of Riley" is available on Blu-Ray and DVD. To order, visit shopPBS.org or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.