I don't like anybody to be angry with me. I'd rather have friends. B. B King Anger • Angry • Anybody • Friends • Like • Me • Rather
I was born on a plantation, and things weren't so good. We didn't have any money. I never thought of the word 'poor' 'til I got to be a man, but when you live in a house that you can always peek out of and see what kind of day it is, you're not doing so well. And your rest room is not inside the house. B. B King Born • Day • Doing • Good • House • Live • Man • Money • Plantation • Things • Til • Word
Whenever I'm in Kansas City, I think back to all the jazz-blues greats who played the blues here – like Count Basie, Charlie Parker and Jay McShann. I watched those guys jam in different places and heard a lot of things – but I couldn't do what they did. They were too good. B. B King Back • Blues • City • Different Places • Good • Greats • Guys • Jam • Jazzblues • Kansas • Lot • Places • Things • Think • Whenever
Growing up, I was taught that a man has to defend his family. When the wolf is trying to get in, you gotta stand in the doorway. B. B King Doorway • Family • Gotta • Growing • Growing Up • Man • Taught • Trying • Wolf
Cotton was a force of nature. There's a poetry to it, hoeing and growing cotton. B. B King Cotton • Force • Growing • Nature • Poetry
Sometimes I just think that there are more things to be said to make the audience understand what I'm trying to do more. When I'm singing, I don't want you to just hear the melody. I want you to relive the story, because most of the songs have pretty good storytelling. B. B King Audience • Good • Melody • Pretty • Singing • Songs • Story • Storytelling • Things • Think • Trying • You
Jazz is the big brother of the blues. If a guy's playing blues like we play, he's in high school. When he starts playing jazz it's like going on to college, to a school of higher learning. B. B King Big • Blues • Brother • College • Guy • High • Higher • Jazz • Learning • Play • School
I didn't want to disrespect my parents, so I never played blues around the house. But I knew then, same as I know today, that I wasn't doing anything wrong. I think that before they died, they both felt very proud of me. B. B King Anything • Blues Around • Doing • Felt • House • Me • Parents • Proud • Think • Today • Wrong
If there was no ladies, I wouldn't wanna be on the planet. Ladies, friends, and music – without those three, I wouldn't wanna be here. B. B King Friends • Ladies • Music • Planet • Three • Without
I call myself a blues singer, but you ain't never heard me call myself a blues guitar man. B. B King Blues • Blues Singer • Guitar • Man • Me • Myself • You
I have a nice car, a Mercedes. And then I have an old El Camino truck that I'm crazy about. I like to get in that truck and go up in the hills near where I live, in Vegas, and take my camera. That, to me, is Heaven, being out in nature, taking pictures of the wildlife. B. B King Camino • Car • Crazy • Hills Near • Live • Me • Mercedes • Nature • Nice • Old • Pictures • Truck • Wildlife
I would sit on the street corners in my hometown of Indianola, Mississippi, and I would play. And, generally, I would start playing gospel songs. People would come by on the street – you live in Time Square, you know how they do it – they would bunch up. And they would always compliment me on gospel tunes, but they would tip me when I played blues. B. B King Blues • Hometown • Indianola Mississippi • Live • Me • People • Songs • Start • Street Corners • Time • Time Square • Tunes • You
I tried to connect my singing voice to my guitar an' my guitar to my singing voice. Like the two was talking to one another. B. B King Another • Guitar • Singing • Singing Voice • Talking • Two • Voice
The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you. B. B King Away • Beautiful • Beautiful Thing • Learning • Nobody • You
I don't have a favorite song that I've written. But I do have a favorite song: 'Always on My Mind,' the Willie Nelson version. If I could sing it like he do, I would sing it every night. I like the story it tells. B. B King Always • Every Night • Favorite • Favorite Song • Like • Mind • Nelson • Night • Song • Story • Version • Willie
I've been married twice. Most women would rather not be married to a traveling blues singer. B. B King Blues • Blues Singer • Rather • Singer • Twice • Women
Nobody loves me but my mother, and she could be jivin', too. B. B King Could • Jivin • Me • Mother • Nobody • She • Too
The way I feel today, as long as my health is good and I can handle myself well and people still come to my concerts, still buy my CDs, I'll keep playing until I feel like I can't. B. B King Good • Health • Myself • People • Today • Way
I don't think anybody steals anything; all of us borrow. B. B King Anybody • Anybody Steals • Anything • Borrow • Think • Us
I'm more careful about my hands than about what I eat and most anything else, because my hands have been my living. My hands have been able to help me learn. My hands have taken me around the world. So I'm very proud of my hands. B. B King Able • Anything • Eat • Hands • Help • Me • Proud • World
I never wanted to be like other blues singers. I might like hearing them play, but I've never wanted to be anyone other than myself. There are a few people that I've wished I could play like, but when I tried, it didn't work. B. B King Anyone • Blues • Myself • Never • People • Play • Singers • Work
A lot of people believe what other people say. B. B King Believe • Lot • Other • People • People Believe • People Say • Say
Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but no one wants to die to get there! B. B King Die • Everybody • Get • Go • Heaven • One • Wants
I'm trying to get people to see that we are our brother's keeper. Red, white, black, brown or yellow, rich or poor, we all have the blues. B. B King Black • Blues • Brother • People • Poor • Red • Rich • White • Yellow
I wanted to connect my guitar to human emotions. B. B King Connect • Emotions • Guitar • Human • Wanted
If you can't get your songs to people one way, you have to find another. B. B King Another • Find • Get • People • Songs • Way • You • Your
I've said that playing the blues is like having to be black twice. Stevie Ray Vaughan missed on both counts, but I never noticed. B. B King Black • Black Twice • Blues • Counts • Missed • Music • Never • Said • Vaughan
The blues was like that problem child that you may have had in the family. You was a little bit ashamed to let anybody see him, but you loved him. You just didn't know how other people would take it. B. B King Bit • Blues • Child • Family • Little • Loved • People • Problem • Problem Child
You've heard me call myself a bluesman and a blues singer. I call myself a blues singer, but you ain't never heard me call myself a blues guitar man. Well, that's because there's been so many can do it better'n I can, play the blues better'n me. I think a lot of them have told me things, taught me things. B. B King Better • Blues • Blues Singer • Bluesman • Guitar • Lot • Man • Many • Me • Myself • Taught • Things • Think • You
I bought my first electric guitar when I moved to Memphis; a Gibson with a DeArmond pickup which I used with a small Gibson amplifier. B. B King DeArmond • Electric Guitar • First • Gibson • Guitar • Memphis • Pickup • Small • Used
Everything I record, I just try to sound like me and come up with songs that suit what I do, and then just go for it. B. B King Everything • Go • Go For It • Me • Songs • Sound • Suit • Try
My wife Martha used to call me Ol' Lemon Face because of my facial contortions when I play Lucille. I squeeze my eyes and open my mouth, raise my eyebrows, cock my head and God knows what else. I look like I'm in torture, when in truth, I'm in ecstasy. I don't do it for show. Every fiber of my being is tingling. B. B King Contortions • Ecstasy • Every • Eyebrows • Eyes • Face • Facial • Fiber • God • Head • Lemon • Martha • Me • Mouth • Ol • Show • Torture • Truth • Wife
Water from the white fountain didn't taste any better than from the black fountain. B. B King Better • Black • Fountain • Water • White • White Fountain
I almost chopped my thumb off once. Just before I left home, I was about ten or eleven years old, and I was trying to open a bone. Can you imagine that? A bone! I was trying to get the marrow out of a bone, and I took the ax, and I went to chop it, and something slipped, and the ax went right down there and damn near cut it off. B. B King Bone • Down • Home • Marrow • Old • Once • Open • Right • Trying • Years • You
Growing up on the plantation there in Mississippi, I would work Monday through Saturday noon. I'd go to town on Saturday afternoons, sit on the street corner, and I'd sing and play. B. B King Corner • Growing • Growing Up • Mississippi • Monday • Plantation • Play • Saturday • Saturday Afternoons • Sit • Town • Work
When we went into World War II, I was a tractor driver then. I drove tractors on the plantation. So when they start calling people my age, 18, up, I was one they called. B. B King Age • People • Plantation • Start • Tractor Driver • Up • War • War II • World
When people treat you mean, you dislike them for that, but not because of their person, who they are. I was born and raised in a segregated society, but when I left there, I had nobody I disliked other than the people that'd mistreated me, and that only lasted for as long as they were mistreating me. B. B King Born • Me • Nobody • People • Person • Segregated Society • Society • Treat • You
I developed in my head that I'm never any better than my last concert or the last time I played, so it's like an audition each time. You get nervous just before going onstage. I still have that, but I think it's more like concern. You're concerned about the people – like meeting your in-laws for the first time. B. B King Better • Concern • First Time • Head • Inlaws • Last • Last Concert • Nervous • Onstage • People • Think • Time • You
Do I love the road? Honestly? No – but it's how I earn my living. I also don't have the blues, like it's some kind of fever. The blues is my job. It's what I do. B. B King Blues • Job • Kind • Living • Love • Road
People all over the world have problems. And as long as people have problems, the blues can never die. B. B King Blues • Die • People • Problems • World
We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about but try to be yourself while you're doing so. B. B King Anyone • Be Yourself • Care • Doing • Idols • You • Yourself
Blues is a tonic for whatever ails you. I could play the blues and then not be blue anymore. B. B King Anymore • Blue • Blues • Play • Then • Tonic • Whatever • You
I've put up with more humiliation than I care to remember. B. B King Care • Humiliation • More • Remember • Up
The minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille. B. B King Minute • Orally • Playing • Singing • Start • Stop
Even now, at 82 years old, if I don't learn something every day, you know what I think? It's a day lost. Now, I don't practice every day. I just take the guitar, swear at it. But I should be swearing at myself. But I fool with music. I'm doing something musically all the time. And my ears are wide open for anything I can hear. B. B King Anything • Day • Ears • Every • Fool • Guitar • Music • Myself • Old • Open • Practice • Something • Swear • Time • Years
What don't I want to learn? I have how-to books, history, nature. Ain't nobody here saying, 'You'd better learn this.' But I still think I've got a head on my shoulders, and it pleases me. B. B King Books History • Head • History • Howto • Me • Nature • Nobody • Saying • Think • You
Back when we was in school in Mississippi, we had Little Black Sambo. That's what you learned: Anytime something was not good, or anytime something was bad in some kinda way, it had to be called black. Like, you had Black Monday, Black Friday, black sheep… Of course, everything else, all the good stuff, is white. White Christmas and such. B. B King Anytime Something • Bad • Black • Black Monday • Christmas • Course Everything • Friday • Good • Good Stuff • Kinda Way • Little Black Sambo • Mississippi • Monday • School • Sheep • White
B. B King
