82 Quotes by B. B. King

You only live but once, and when your died your done, so let the good times roll.

The blues are three L's - living , loving and hopefully, laughing.

God made Blues right after he made woman.

A day that I don't learn something new is a wasted day.

And as long as people have problems, the blues can never die.

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.

I wanted to connect my guitar to human emotions.

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Music is good for everybody. They say it soothes the savage beast. Well, I think theirs a beast in all of us. So let's get some more music and soothe all the beasts out there.

We are here because there are things that need our help. Like the planet. Like each other. Like animals. The world is like a garden, and we are its protectors.

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.

Nobody loves me but my mother, And she could be jivin' too.

I look at an audience kind of like meeting my in-laws for the first time. You want to be yourself, but you still want to be somebody that they like. When I go on the stage each night, I try my best to outguess my audience.

A guitar is like an old friend that is there with me.

Playing the guitar is like telling the truth - you never have to worry about repeating the same [lie] if you told the truth. You don't have to pretend, or cover up. If someone asks you again, you don't have to think about it or worry about it because there it is. It's you.

There's a sadness to all kinds of music if you want to hear it. There's also happiness to it if you want to hear it.

Ladies, friends, and music - without those three, I wouldn't wanna be here

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No one can take it away from you.

Education is the one thing that no one can take from you.

Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but no one wants to die to get there!

It seems like I always had to work harder than other people. Those nights when everybody else is asleep, and you sit in your room trying to play scales.

I can't think of anyone I've mistreated. I've always thought that I am my brother's keeper. And I believe there's a 'great spirit' that takes care of all of us.

We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about but try to be yourself while you're doing so.

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.

May I live forever. But may you live forever and a day.

I thought Eric Clapton was good. He still is. Not only is he good - he's rock's #1 guitarist, and he plays blues better than most of us

I don't like anybody to be angry with me. I'd rather have friends.

It's going to be years and years before most people realize how greatly he contributed to American music.

I don't think it's meant for man to know everything at once.

Water from the white fountain didn't taste any better than from the black fountain.

The blues was bleeding the same blood as me.

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.

When I do eventually drop, I pray to God that it will happen in one of three ways. Firstly, on stage or leaving the stage, then secondly in my sleep. And the third way? You'll have to figure that out for yourself!

Notes are expensive... spend them wisely

A lot of people believe what other people say.

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.

I never use that word, retire.

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.

Playing guitar is like telling the truth.

I'm no good with chords. I'm horrible with chords.

Albert King wasn't my brother in blood, but he sure was my brother in Blues

There was a lot of other young players around at that time when I was coming, but there was older people like Blind Lemon, which was one of my favorites. I don't know, just seemed like everybody I heard could play better than me.

If you want to be a good blues singer, people are going to be down on you, so dress like you're going to the bank to borrow money.

Janis Joplin sings the blues as hard as any black person.

I'm self-taught. But I finally learned that they was having little shows or night dances or whatever you call them at little juke joints not far from where I lived, and I used to go there. They wouldn't let me play inside, but I could sit outside on the weekends, when it wasn't raining or something.

Many people leave the country to see beautiful places. I just look out the window and see some of the most gorgeous scenery ever, right here in the USA.

I think of guitar players in terms of doctors: you have the doctor for your heart, the cardiologist, then one that works on your feet, your leg. But I believe George Benson is the one that plays all over. To me, he would be the M.D. of them all.

If you can't get your songs to people one way, you have to find another.

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.

You never miss what you've never had. I never had any other life. I didn't know any other life.

The Blues? It's the mother of American music. That's what is is - the source.

Singing about your sadness unburdens your soul. But the blues hollers shouted about more than being sad. They were also delivering messages in musical code. If the master was coming, you might sing a hidden warning to the other field hands . . . The blues could warn you what was coming. I could see the blues was about survival.

Hard times don't necessarily mean being poor all the time. I've known people that was a part of a family and always feel that the family likes everybody else but them. That hurts and that's as deep a hurt as you can possibly get.

When you don't have much money, you worry that they'll just put you in the ground someplace and your loved ones won't know where you are.

When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.

I don't do much recording anymore, but before I really stopped, I was glad to get five, five cent a record. That's why when I see people today and they complain about what they get, and I picked cotton for $2.50 a day.

I do it because I still get a kick out of it. I still love performing. It keeps me young.

When I was young, I didn't play like I do today. So these kids are starting at the height that I've reached. Think what they might do over time.

I don't think anybody steals anything; all of us borrow.

I've put up with more humiliation than I care to remember.

Charlie Christian had no more impact on my playing than Django Reinhardt or Lonnie Johnson. I just wanted to play like him. I wanted to play like all of them. All of these people were important to me. I couldn't play like any of them, though.

I liked blues from the time my mother used to take me to church. I started to listen to gospel music, so I liked that. But I had an aunt at that time, my mother's aunt, who bought records by people like Lonnie Johnson, Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson and a few others.

I was glad to see other blues guitarists like Albert King have crossover successes like me. We played in the same places like the Whisky and the Filmore. When Albert made his guitar cry, he could cut you so deep!

I don't try to just be a blues singer - I try to be an entertainer. That has kept me going.

I call myself a blues singer, but you ain't never heard me call myself a blues guitar man.

I don’t like to feel that I owe anything. I like to feel that I pay my own way, no free lunch.

Religion began as a natural explanation of the universe. The problem started when people refused to accept new evidence.

Being a blues singer is like being black two times.

I can't afford no liquor, all I can buy is beer and wine.

I'd rather be B.B. King. That's the way I started. Let the heavy metal guys play heavy metal, let the others play the other ... I try to do what I do better, not get away from it.

A lot of times I say to myself, "I wished I could be worthy of all the compliments that people give me sometimes." I'm not inventing anything that's going to stop cancer or muscular dystrophy or anything, but I like to feel that my time and talent is always there for the people that need it. When someone do say something negative, most times I think about it, but it don't bother me that much.

I've always liked ladies all my life. I guess it started with my mom. So every time I saw a pretty lady, I thought, she's pretty.

There are so many sounds I still want to make, so many things I haven't yet done.

Kenny Burrell is overall the greatest guitarist in the world and he's my favorite.

The crowds treat me like my last name. When I go onstage people usually stand up, I never ask them to, but they do. They stand up and they don't know how much I appreciate it.

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' till 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 restroom is not inside the house.

Sometimes the proprietors of the little juke joints gave me a couple dollars. I loved that. I'd go back next Saturday.

Blues purists never cared for me. I don't worry about it. I think if it this way: When I made 'Three O' Clock Blues,' they were not there. The people out there made the tune. And blues purists just wrote about it. The people is who I'm trying to satisfy.

I've been married twice. Most women would rather not be married to a traveling blues singer

It just seemed to me that the way I played was nice. I could hear it myself.

I guess you can look at me, and tell I'm the old man. My name is BB King.

I gave you seven children, but now you want to give them back.