After Rain Comes a Blue Rainbow: B. B. King and a Story of Resilience
“I think music is like a fingerprint, you know? Nobody has the same fingerprint. The techniques that he has… nobody can really copy it, cause that’s his soul.”
Blues legend B. B. King playing the guitar.
It is hard to describe the feeling of becoming close to someone who seemed like a figment of my imagination before. However, that is how I feel after watching ‘An Evening With B. B. King.’ Riley B. King, or B. B. King, was an iconic blues musician known for his soulful vocals, skilled songwriting, and revolutionary guitar playing. His most impactful songs, such as “The Thrill is Gone” and “Woke Up This Morning,” have made a permanent imprint on the cultural landscape of the United States. Learning more about the iconic musician through his interview with Isaac Hayes was an incredible experience.
B. B. King and Isaac Hayes during ‘An Evening with B. B. King.’
B. B. was born in Indianola, Mississippi, but eventually moved to Memphis, Tennessee. As a child, he was raised in the Baptist church by his mother and in the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) by his grandmother. Before he reached his teens, his mother and his grandmother both died, leaving B. B. to fend for himself from a young age. However, he never realized that his childhood was especially difficult, nor did he dwell on his struggles, because he assumed that all Black children were going through similar experiences.
As a teen and a young man, B. B. explored the South and learned about the world before becoming a musician. While living in Kentucky, B. B. saw many lynchings at the hands of white people and was haunted by what he saw for decades. B. B. worked as a sharecropper, which is where he saw great depths of inequality and poverty. He was later drafted to fight in World War II.
Young B. B. King at the beginning of his music career.
After learning about King’s childhood and young adult years before he began his music career, several things stuck out to me. Both King and Hayes were incredibly humorous throughout the interview, and King was skilled at captivating his audience. Given the nature of King’s youth, his ability to write incredible Blues music is not a shock; some of the most poetic and powerful words are born out of pain. However, I wonder where and how he developed his sense of humor and charisma. His ability to be resilient in the face of struggle and come out on the other side as a legend is one that inspires me. B. B. King is a true HistoryMakers, and his story is one that should be known by all young Americans.
