|
I
was told by Mr. King's manager to meet him outside the backstage
door at 6:40pm. B.B.'s band was going on at 7:00, and he usually
followed them 30 minutes later. To say I was excited was an
understatement. B.B. had just won a pair of Grammys two days
before, and I was thrilled to have landed this interview.
Around
6:45, B.B.'s manager appeared and told me the interview would
have to take place on the bus, and that I had 10 minutes. How
do you even begin to talk to a legend in 10 minutes?
I didn't know but was determined to try.
I
walked into the bus, which was incredibly nice and warmlyl-decorated.
B.B.'s manager followed me and told me to go to the back office,
and repeated one more time, "10 minutes!" When I reached
the back office, there was the King of the Blues,dressed in
a nice black tux and relaxing on a large, black, leather sofa
listening to...what else?... the blues. He offered me a Diet
Coke, turned the music down, and then we began:
BBK=B.B.
King
DL=Devon
Laney
DL:
Thank you for taking the time to talk with me tonight Mr. King,
we're thrilled to have you back in Birmingham.
BBK: You're very welcome. It's good to be here!
DL: Congratulations on winning the two Grammys Sunday
night. That makes thirteen now right?
BBK: Thirteen, yeah.
DL: Where do you keep all those things?
BBK: In the bedroom! <laughs>
DL: Really? But you're never there...
BBK: That's why I keep 'em there! <laughs>
DL:
I wanted to talk to you first about your memories of Birmingham...
BBK: Well I've had a lot of good memories here. Birmingham's
always been good to us. I'm trying to think...there used to
be a little place just outside... we called it Foot's Place.
In Bessemer we always played, but never really downtown, usually
all around it... and I've been playing here since the fifties.
DL: I know you've played in 88 countries now...
BBK: 90. It's 90 now.
DL: Wow...90 countries. Well being from the South yourself,
what are the differences when you come back and play here, as
opposed to the other locations you've played? Is there a difference
in the crowd enthusiasm?
BBK: Not really...not anymore at least. Now it's pretty
near the same all over. I can go anyplace now, and people are
pretty near the same. My audience has been, for the last 10
or 12 years or so, from about...I would say, if it's a club,
from the age they can get in, say about 18...to say 45. But
in concerts where there is no liquor sold it gets much younger
than that...and a lot of times much older than that! There's
hardly any difference...and now, the funny thing about it, it's
pretty near like that all over the world.
DL: You've worked with so many musicians in your career,
Etta James, John Lee Hooker, KoKo Taylor, Eric Clapton...the
list is just overwhelming. Is there anyone you wish you had
been able to work with that you didn't?
BBK:
There are several guys I wish I could have worked with before
they passed on. One guy was called Memphis Slim, wish I could
have done something with him. I was asked to do something with
Frank Sinatra and I never did get to do it. But, later I was
able to do something with Tony Bennett, which he said was one
of his favorite things...so I feel good about that. There are
so many today, I beleive it's easier for me to ask you who it
is that I wouldn't want to work with, and I can't think of anybody
I would not like to work with. I've worked with so many young
ones, new ones coming along today, and a lot of them recorded
with, so I can't think of anbody I wouldn't want to record with.
DL: You're known as the King of the Blues. With so many
styles of music being blended today and lines being crossed,
what does "the blues" mean to you?
BBK:
Well, blues to me is life as we are living it today, as we lived
it in the past, and as I believe we'll live it in the future.
It has to do with people, and as long as we have people we'll
have the blues I think, because most blues singers, males that
is, are always singing about the lady we wish we had and the
one that got away...and so on. Vice versa for the ladies. Even
young kids today, regardless of color, have their problems as
I did when I was coming along. Kids today, and they don't all
have to be in poverty, people today, we as America today have
a problem right now that we wish we didn't have. So it's always
something, and usually we can almost sum it up: things we like,
things we don't like, things we wish would happen, and things
we wish would not happen, and that sums up the blues.
DL: Your most recent album, "A Christmas Celebration
of Hope", is your first Christmas album in your entire
career. What made you decide to release a holiday album, now?
BBK:
I've always wanted to do one, but I'm with a big company, and
we can...we can do anything we want <laughs>, but to get
it released we have to find a good time to release it. They
gave me permission to do it and they would release it a couple
of years ago, to release not necessarily a Christmas CD, but
something similar to it, and I just decided to go ahead andjust
make it a Christmas CD. What really made me want to do it was
I was at this place called the City of Hope. The city of Hope
is similar to St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis, only
much larger, and they do things in a much larger scale. They
don't discrimimate in color, economics, or anything of the sort.
If you're sick, they try to help you, you don't have to have
a penny. And I saw kids up there, like 4, 5 and 6 up to adult,
and to see how they were treated, and see the care that they
get up there. I went out there and stayed all day one time,
and the little kids...and they know it, it isn't like they don't
know what they're diseases are, ya know. They know...and some
of them have lost all their hair, and they're just as fun to
be with. I was sitting out there with my guitar, and they were
climbing all over my lap, and all I could do to keep from crying
was think about how great it is to have people like that to
take care of them. There were people out there with their children,
know that they'll never go home...but they have a good track
record up there. Ninety percent of the patients they've cured.
Not only that, but I'm a diabetic, and they discovered something
I have to live with everyday called insulin. So that's another
thing that made me want to do it. So we dedicated the funds
from the CD to the City of Hope, and that was the main reason
I wanted to do it.
DL: Fifty years from now, your music will be remembered
as original, groundbreaking, and most importantly, uniquely
yours...
BBK:
<laughs> I thank you, but it was here when I got here.
DL: But it wasn't the same...
BBK: No...no it wasn't the same.
DL: What do you want to be remembered as apart from the
musician side?
BBK: I
don't ever think of the musician part of it. But I would like
to be remembered as something like a next door neighbor, a friend.
Somebody that loved people and wanted to be loved by them.
DL: What's next for you? Obviously you'll continue touring...but
is there anything you're working on currently?
BBK: Always, always. <laughs> I think as long as
you're alive there's things to learn and things to do. And me,
I'm a guy that was short on education, so there's always something
I'm trying to learn or find out about. But one thing I have
not done, I've made many movies, but very few speaking parts...mostly
cameos, I would like to do a movie with one of the artists...not
as a leading person but as a costar. I just did a thing, Wynonna
Judd and I sang for Bono the other night, and that was fun.
With her was her sister...oh she was so pretty. <laughs>
I would like to do domething with her, or Morgan Freeman, or
anything with people who are known, man or woman. That's something
I would like to do, and I hope I have the chance.
DL: I hope you do too. Mr. King, thanks again for talking
with me tonight. Take care of yourself, and I hope to see you
again soon.
BBK: You're very welcome. Thank you, and I'll see you
soon.
This interview
is copyright © 2003 by Devon Laney, and SoutheastConcerts.com,
all rights reserved. Copy, duplication or download prohibited
without written permission. For permission to use this article
please contact Devon Laney here.
|
