Long Live the King

Artists whose careers are measured in decades — Sinatra, McCartney, Dylan — eventually seem to inhabit an almost mythical realm of eternal fame in which their ties to the lives of ordinary beings are largely severed. Not B.B. King. Sixty years404 Not Found

404 Not Found

nginx/1.14.0 (Ubuntu) spent working with something as visceral as the blues has left him with no inclination to join the other immortals on music’s Parnassus. Instead, he has chosen to remain right here with us, at the coal face of humanity, mining our rawest emotions to fuel a music that has the power to warm any heart.

King’s vast corpus of work has never been anything but honest, uplifting and universal in appeal. Now 80, he has embarked on his farewell tour, the next couple of weeks taking him to Canada (March 24-25), to England for five shows (March 29-April 4) and then back to North America for a slew of U.S. appearances. Catch him wherever you can.

This is not only an opportunity to encounter one of the last living links to the world of Delta Blues — it’s a chance to see a man who has never lost the common touch, or his love of humanity and its frailties, despite decades of wealth and adulation. That’s the mark of a real king.