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B.B. King Facts & Worksheets

B.B. King was an American singer-songwriter who was instrumental in the popularity of blues to a worldwide audience.

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B.B. “Blues Boy” King was an American singer-songwriter who was instrumental in the popularity of blues to a worldwide audience.

See the fact file below for more information on B.B. King or you can download our 20-page B.B. King worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

EARLY LIFE

  • Riley B. King was born on September 16, 1925, in Itta Bena, Mississippi. He came from a family of very humble means, wherein his parents were sharecroppers on a cotton plantation in Mississippi. His father’s name was Albert L. King, and his mother’s name was Nora Ella King.
  • When King was young, he started singing in the gospel choir at Elkhorn Baptist Church in Kilmichael. The music of the Pentecostal Church of God in Christ drew King to it. 
  • During services, the local minister played a Sears Roebuck Silvertone guitar and taught King his first three chords.
  • In 1943, King left Kilmichael to take a job as a tractor driver and perform as a guitarist with the Famous St. John’s Gospel Singers of Inverness, Mississippi. 
  • However, he yearned to visit Memphis, the hometown of his cousin and well-known bluesman, Bukka White.
  • In the mid-1940s, as an ambitious man with goals to achieve, he decided to relocate to Memphis in order to pursue a career.
  • His first big break came from WDIA radio in West Memphis, where he was given a weekly spot promoting Pepticon, a health tonic.

MUSIC CAREER

  • King entered into a contract with Modern Records in the early 1950s and made his first recordings. His “Three O’Clock Blues” helped him gain a solid local reputation, and he began touring nationally.
  • In 1956, his band performed 342 one-night stands across the country. 
  • In the years that followed, King transitioned from the southern chitlin circuit to concert halls, amphitheaters, and resort hotels. 
  • He performed at the Howard Theater in Washington, the Royal Theater in Baltimore, and New York‘s famed Apollo Theater.
  • Despite the fact that he was widely respected in the blues community and continued to perform in front of large black audiences, B.B. King did not have the mainstream success that some of his contemporaries did. 
  • However, by the late 1960s, King had gained widespread recognition, with many rock and roll musicians, including Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy, addressing him as a musical influence.
  • King signed with ABC Records in 1962, and the landmark blues concert album Live at the Regal was released in 1965. Four years later, he released his biggest hit single, “The Thrill Is Gone.” 
  • He was the first blues musician to tour the Soviet Union in 1979 and also the first to break into mainstream pop music. 
  • He featured frequently in Las Vegas, Nevada, and on network television.
  • King embarked on a “farewell” world tour in 2006, though he continued to tour and record afterward. The tour was partially supported by Northern Irish guitarist Gary Moore, with whom King had previously toured and recorded. 
  • It began in the United Kingdom and continued with appearances at the Montreux Jazz Festival and the Blues at Sunset festival in Zürich.

ACHIEVEMENTS

  • In 1984, B.B. King was elected into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame. In 1987, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 
  • In the same year, he garnered a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement, as well as honorary degrees from the University of Mississippi, Yale University, and Berklee College of Music.
  • He founded B.B. King’s Blues Club in Memphis in 1991, his first establishment; he later opened clubs in New York, Los Angeles, and Connecticut.
  • In 1995, he received the Kennedy Center Honors, which acknowledge “the lifelong accomplishments and extraordinary talents of our nation’s most prestigious artists.” 
  • In 2004, he received the Polar Music Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music for his “significant contributions to the blues.”
  • Furthermore, the legendary singer and guitarist became the focus of his own museum, which opened in 2008. 
  • The B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola, Mississippi is dedicated to King’s music, the music that influenced him, and the history of the delta region.
  • Throughout his professional career, B.B. King was honored with 18 Grammys, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Kennedy Center Honors.

LEGACY

  • Music has taken B.B. King to the former Soviet Union, South America, Africa, Australia, Japan, and many European cities.
  • He developed his own distinctive and recognizable guitar style, drawing inspiration from T-Bone Walker, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Lonnie Johnson while employing his own method of trilling the strings with a left-hand vibrato.
  • During a period in politics when issues of race and class in the prison system were prominent, King recorded “Live in Cook County Jail” in September 1970.
  • In addition to his support for prisoners and interest in prison reform, King co-founded the Foundation for the Advancement of Inmate Rehabilitation and Recreation.
  • Along with prison reform, King hoped to use prison performances to preserve music and songs in the same way that Alan Lomax did.
  • After being diagnosed with diabetes in 1990, King became prominent in the eradication of the disease. 
  • From the early 2000s, he appeared in several television commercials for a blood glucose monitoring device called a OneTouch Ultra.
  • King became a sponsor of Little Kids Rock, a non-profit organization offering free musical instruments and instruction to children in poor and disadvantaged public schools across the United States, in 2002. 
  • He served on the Honorary Board of Directors of the organization.

LATER YEARS

  • Until King was in his 70s, he performed over 250 concerts per year. Then, a decade later, the number of tour dates the guitarist booked became more exclusive.
  • But due to age and exhaustion, his health began to deteriorate over the years. 
  • Following a subpar performance in April 2014 at St. Louis’ Peabody Opera House, B.B. King apologized publicly. 
  • At 89 and still performing, King fell onstage at Chicago’s House of Blues in October 2014, resulting in the cancellation of upcoming shows.
  • The legend, Riley B. King, died in his sleep on May 14, 2015, at the age of 89, from vascular dementia induced by a series of small strokes caused by his type 2 diabetes. 
  • Two of King’s daughters claimed he was poisoned by two associates attempting to induce diabetic shock. But an autopsy revealed no evidence of poisoning.
  • Thousands of fans attended the late blues musician’s funeral procession on May 27 at Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. A brass band played “When the Saints Go Marching In“ in his honor.
  • On May 30, King was laid to rest at the B.B. King Museum, located in Indianola, Mississippi, his hometown.

B.B. King Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about B.B. King across 20 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets that are perfect for teaching kids about B.B. King, who was an American singer-songwriter who was instrumental in the popularity of blues to a worldwide audience.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

  1. B.B. King Facts
  2. Music Genre: BLUES
  3. Lyrics from the Heart
  4. The Thrill is Gone
  5. All About Love
  6. Instrument of Choice
  7. Words from Experience
  8. My Genre and His
  9. Making Music
  10. The Musician
  11. Pursue my Goal

Frequently Asked Questions

How many Grammys did BB King win in his lifetime?

Throughout the years, B.B. King has earned many accolades, such as the 18th Grammy Awards, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and Kennedy Center Honors, for his pioneering contributions to music.

Who gave BB King his first guitar?

King got 15 dollars from Flake Cartledge, his employer in Kilmichael, to purchase his first guitar. He then had an obligation to pay back this amount over two months by deducting it from his wages.

What was BB King’s first No 1 hit?

With a pioneering career spanning decades, B.B King started his Billboard chart history in 1951 with 3 O’Clock Blues, which was No. 1 on the Best-Selling Retail Rhythm & Blues Records and Most-Played in Juke Box Rhythm & Blues Records charts.

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Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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