--- ---  # Why It Took So Long for the World to Discover B.B. King  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 15, 2015 1:19 PM UTC  B.B. King, playing guitar live on stage in 1960 B.B. King, playing guitar live on stage in 1960Charlie Gillett—Redferns/Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 15, 2015 1:19 PM UTC B.B. King – the music legend who [died on Thursday evening](http://time.com/3859842/bb-king-dead-obituary-blues-legend-gibson-guitar-las-vegas-89/) – was the blues. It’s even right there in his name: B.B. stands for “Blues Boy,” a name that King (real first name Riley) adopted after moving to Memphis to make it in music. He came to Memphis in 1948, in his early 20s. But, though he had the emotional depth and technical skill to cut it, it took decades for his name to be in lights. As TIME reported in a 1969 profile of the by-then-famous bluesman, King and his guitar — nicknamed Lucille — just didn’t fit in with the musical tastes of the time: --- > “” --- Within a year, he was playing some of the nation’s most important venues — the Fillmore Auditorium, the Village Gate — and touring Europe. “People are starting to go with me,” King told TIME back then. “I think it’s because they know I’m not kidding out there. Blues is a message, and they’re getting it.” **_Read the full 1969 story, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Blues Boy](http://time.com/vault/issue/1969-01-10/page/52/) ### Remembering B.B. King, an Icon of the Blues  Portrait of musician B.B. King in 1972. John Shearer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Portrait of musician B.B. King in 1972. John Shearer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Portrait of musician B.B. King in 1972. John Shearer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Portrait of musician B.B. King in 1972. John Shearer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Portrait of musician B.B. King in 1972. John Shearer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Portrait of musician B.B. King in 1972. John Shearer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Portrait of musician B.B. King in 1972. John Shearer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images B.B. King Remembered: Why It Took So Long for the World to Find Him ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3860067/b-b-king-music-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3860067/b-b-king-music-history/"},"headline":"Why It Took So Long for the World to Discover B.B. King","datePublished":"2015-05-15T13:19:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:03:57.707Z","description":"The music legend has died at 89","url":"https://time.com/3860067/b-b-king-music-history/","keywords":["remembrance","Music","People"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3d74f605a15e58f/6987efdb0b72e377906e20f9/bb-king.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3d74f605a15e58f/6987efdb0b72e377906e20f9/bb-king.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"BB KING","caption":"Photo of BB KING","creditText":"Charlie Gillett—Redferns/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/remembrance/","name":"remembrance"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3860067/b-b-king-music-history/","name":"Why It Took So Long for the World to Discover B.B. King"}}]}] ```