Anthony Maxwell Waite Ms.

Benjamin

My Hero is: B.B. king

1. I will be presenting my Hero in a Power Point Presentation.

2. I will be playing one of my Hero’s songs on the Power Point Presentation.
3. One reason I chose my Hero is because we share the same birthday, September 16. My hero was
born September 16, 1925 in Itta Bena, Mississippi.
4. List 10 facts you will present from your Hero’s biography:
a. His full name is Riley B. King; he was named after his uncle. He is known as “The king of the Blues” and
nicknamed B.B. King which means “Blues Boy”.
b. His first influence came from a preacher and distant relatives named Archie Fair. B.B. saw him sing and play
the guitar whenever he went to the Holiness Church in Kilmicheal to attend service. At 9 years old, B.B.
King was part of a gospel singing group along with his cousin Birkett Davis and friend Walter Doris, Jr.
c. B.B. was also inspired by other artists like Lowell Fulson, Elmore James, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lonnie
Johnson, Robert Lockwood, Jr. and T-Bone Walker. Among his famous songs are "Three O’clock Blues,"
"Woke Up This Morning," "The Thrill Is Gone" and "Sweet Sixteen," to name a few.
d. B.B. wrote "Woke Up This Morning" after the breakup of his marriage from his first wife. The song "The
Thrill Is Gone" was written after his second marriage fell apart. B.B. was inducted to the Blues Hall of Fame
in 1984, received the Presidential Medal of the Arts in 1990 and received an Honorary Doctorate of Music
from Yale University, Berkley College of Music, Rhodes College and Tugaloo College.
e. His first big break came after he played live on a radio station (KWEM) hosted by Sonny Boy Williamson.
After that, the station was inundated with phone calls. Later on B.B. was given his own radio show on
another station (WDIA}, his show was called "Sepia Swing Club."
f. Despite his failed marriages, B.B. has a constant companion named "Lucille." Lucille is the name of the
guitar he almost lost during a fire. B.B. risked his life when he went inside the burning building to get his
guitar. He later learned that the fire erupted when two men started fighting because of a woman named
Lucille. The fighting men reportedly knocked over a barrel of kerosene. B.B. named his guitar Lucille after
that, as well as all the other guitars he would later own to remind him "never to do a thing like that again".
He mainly plays on a Gibson guitar.
g. King served briefly in the U.S. Army but soon made his way to Memphis with his guitar, moving in with his
cousin Booker (Bukka) White, himself a blues artist. King's attempts to emulate Bukka's slide guitar
technique helped him develop what Musician called his "trademark," namely "a first-finger vibrato that
shakes at the wrist and punctuates the blues as recognizably as very few other sounds."
h. By the 1980s King was formally recognized as a blues institution. He won the a 1984 Grammy for Best
Traditional Blues Recording for Blues 'n' Jazz; he appeared on the album Rattle and Hum with the Irish
rock band U2—the video for the song on which he performed took an MTV award—and worked in the
studio with members of the cutting-edge rock band Living Colour; he also received a Lifetime
Achievement Award at the 1988 Grammy festivities and another at the Songwriters Hall of Fame dinner
two years later. Along with the former honor came profound praise: King was hailed as "one of the most
original and soulful of all blues guitarists and singers, whose compelling style and devotion to musical
truth have inspired so many budding performers, both here and abroad, to celebrate the blues."
i. By the time he reached his late sixties, King had scaled back his performance schedule somewhat—he was
briefly hospitalized due to diabetes in 1990—though he still toured regularly. In the spring of 1994, he
brought the blues to Red China, playing an invitation-only concert at the Beijing Hard Rock Cafe.
Although he had come a very long way from the plantation and the segregated hothouse of the early blues
scene, he told Bradley on Street Stories that onstage, little had changed over the years. "I've forgotten what
I look like. In fact, I don't even exist. It's just the guitar and myself in that setting." He was by now on
Lucille the Fifteenth. "We've spent 40 years together," he noted to Ebony." She likes younger men but puts
up with me."
 j. In December of 1995, a 70-year old King was named a recipient of the 18th annual Kennedy Center
Honors along with Neil Simon, Sidney Poitier, Marilyn Horne, and Jacques d'Amboise. King said of the
event, "Meeting the President of the United States is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. …
Anytime the most powerful man in the world takes 10 to 15 minutes to sit and talk with me, an old guy
from Indianola, Mississippi, that's a memory imprinted in my head which forever will be there. To go be
honored, to have people playing for you, for the things you may or may have not done in your lifetime,
that's the greatest honor to be paid to me."

5. List 5 ways in which your Hero positively contributed to society.

a. King is a proponent of music education for children. In 2002, he signed on as an official supporter of Little
Kids Rock; a nonprofit organization that provides free musical instruments and free lessons to children in
public schools throughout the U.S.A. He sits on the organization's board of directors as an honorary member.
b. BB king helped African Americans with numerous donations and he was also in the march in Birmingham
with Martin Luther King.
c. Jimi Hendrix
d. Eric Clapton
e. s

6. My timeline of 5 accomplishments with be Slides in Power Point/Photo Story.

7. 10 pictures related to your hero.

8. I will be using B.B. Kings guitar, Lucille, as an item of significance. This item is significant because in the winter of
1949, King played at a dance hall in Twist, Arkansas. In order to heat the hall, a barrel half-filled with kerosene was lit,
a fairly common practice at the time. During a performance, two men began to fight, knocking over the burning barrel
and sending burning fuel across the floor. The hall burst into flames, which triggered an evacuation. Once outside, King
realized that he had left his guitar inside the burning building. He entered the blaze to retrieve his beloved $30 Gibson
guitar. Two people died in the fire. The next day, King learned that the two men were fighting over a woman named
Lucille. King named that first guitar Lucille, as well as every one he owned since that near-fatal experience, as a
reminder never again to do something as stupid as run into a burning building or fight over women. B.B. King wrote a
song called “Lucille” where he talks about his guitar and how it got that name. The song was first released as part of
Lucille and it is included on the B. B. King Anthology 1962–1998 album.
9. B.B King has helped a lot of people in his time as a musician. He is a proponent of music education for children. he
signed on as an official supporter of Little Kids Rock; a nonprofit organization that provides free musical instruments
and free lessons to children in public schools throughout the U.S.A. He sits on the organization's board of directors as
an honorary member. BB king helped African Americans with numerous donations and he was also in the march in
Birmingham with Martin Luther King. These are some of the reasons B.B. King should be remembered throughout
history.

Work Cited

 "B. B. King." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 23

May. 2011 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

 Estrella, Espie. "Profile of B.B. King." Music Education. The New York

Times Company, Fall 1923. Web. 23 May 2011.

<http://musiced.about.com/od/blackhistorymonth/p/bbking.htm>.
 Cross, Micheal M. "Facts about B.B. King - True Knowledge." True

Knowledge - the Internet Answer Engine. TrueKnowledge, Nov.-Dec.

1920. Web. 23 May 2011.

<http://www.trueknowledge.com/q/facts_about__b_b_king>.

 Dawkings, Mark T. "B.B. King: Inducted in 1987 | The Rock and Roll

Hall of Fame and Museum." The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and

Museum | RockHall.com. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum,

Inc, 12 Apr. 1956. Web. 23 May 2011. <http://rockhall.com/inductees/bb-

king/>.

 "B.B. King." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 23 May. 2011.
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/318274/B-B-King>.