PHILADELPHIA, Miss. – Blues legend B.B. King likes to pass the time while on tour relaxing in his jumbo-sized luxury bus, playing dominoes and checkers on his silver laptop computer.
But King plays a lot more than just computer games, obviously. He’s been exceptionally busy lately playing his favorite guitar, Lucille, at tour stops in Europe and around the United States.
He performs Sunday at Tulalip Amphitheatre.
“I still will tour domestically somewhat, not nothing like I’ve been,” King told The Associated Press in June. “It is time to cut down a bit. Now that I am 80 years old, I said that once I’d made it – 80, that is – I would cut back.”
So much for that idea.
He also managed during the Mississippi part of his tour to squeeze in some living history segments for the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center, which is under construction near the cotton gin where King once worked.
“I went to a place I haven’t been in 80 years – my birthplace,” King said, with laughter.
He was born on a plantation in Itta Bena near Indianola. To find it, he said the crew used audio recordings of his late father giving directions to get there. Hearing Albert King’s voice was a very emotional experience for the blues legend.
“My dad never told me he loved me – outward,” King said. “He never said it in words, but he had a way of talking to me that made me know. I learned when he was very pleased with me, he called me ‘Jack.’ I don’t know why. I knew when he said ‘Jack,’ I could see the look in his eyes.”
Born Riley B. King, the blues great was named after his father’s friend Jim O’Reilly. King said he once asked his father why his name didn’t begin with the “O.”
“He said, ‘You didn’t look Irish enough,’” King quipped.
The memories came flooding back to King during his birthplace visit, including one moment when the father remarked about the son’s guitar skills.
“He never told me I was good as an entertainer. He did tell me once, ‘Boy, you’ll never play guitar as good as I am.’ I didn’t argue with him,” King said.
King hopes the museum will help keep his music alive.
“I want to be able to share with the world the blues as I know it – that kind of music – and talk about the Delta and Mississippi as a whole,” he said. “I’m hoping I can live long enough to see it up.”
A diabetic, King keeps several sugar-free snacks in the back of his bus. He favored the cheddar-cheese flavored Goldfish crackers.
“Would you like some?” King said. “I like them. They are good.”
As King ate a handful, he fastidiously kept any crumbs from falling on his black tuxedo. The temperature in the bus was around 75 degrees, but King was comfortable in his slacks, trademark leather shoes and long-sleeved white dress shirt.
“I like to think that when you go on stage you should never go on stage with the clothes that you wore in the street,” he explained. “If I go and see a concert and see everybody in overalls … it is not as exciting to me as to see them looking like they are show people.”
As famous as King is for his guitar mastery, he also stands out because of his mellifluous voice, and the stories he tells with it.
“When I’m singing I don’t want you to just hear the melody,” he said. “I want you to relive the story because most of the songs have pretty good story telling.”
B.B. King performs Sunday at Tulalip Amphitheatre.
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