B.B. King’s name, face, music and heavenly finger vibrato were known far and wide long before the 20th century came to a close. But for the first half of his life, King toiled in near obscurity.

King became known as “the Blues Boy of Beale Street,” then the Beale Street Blues Boy, shortened to Bee Bee King for his on-air nickname, and later simply B.B. King.

But B.B. King was a person, one of our best ever, and he lived a life befitting his legacy. These 10 facts only represent a fraction of how fascinating King’s life and music was: ...

Born Riley B. King on Sept. 16, 1925, on a tenant farm near Itta Bena, Mississippi, King was raised by his grandmother after his parents separated and his mother died.

That was B.B. King: A humble, straight-talking, one-of-a-kind blues singer/musician who grew up in Kilmichael, Miss., and spent part of his teen years in Indianola, Miss.

B.B. King was born Riley B. King Sept. 16, 1925, on a cotton plantation in Mississippi. He was the son of sharecroppers. The 89 year-old blues legend died Thursday night at his home in Las Vegas.

Indianola, Miss., will be home to a $10 million museum honoring the life and work of bluesman B.B. King. The Grammy-award winning guitar player turns 80 in September and still performs regularly ...

Having already worked separately with B.B. King and Eric Clapton, bass-guitar great Nathan East was understandably delighted to join the two guitar legends in 2000 when they recorded the chart-topp… ...

B.B.’s youngest daughter, Barbara, a hairdresser in Texas who says she’s “between 40 and 60,” says her mother hooked up with King when he was passing through Shreveport, La., for a gig ...

The invention of the electric guitar in the 20 th century spawned a long list of great guitarists – B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, Eddie Van Halen and many more.

At 12 years old, a fortuitous meeting with B.B. King changed his life, and the child prodigy was invited to open for several of King’s performances in upstate New York.