Top 70 B. B. King Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you.”

— B. B. King

2. “A day that I don’t learn something new is a wasted day.”

— B. B. King

3. “Education is the one thing that no one can take from you.”

— B. B. King

4. “Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but no one wants to die to get there!”

— B. B. King

5. “A guitar is like an old friend that is there with me.”

— B. B. King

6. “You only live but once, and when your died your done, so let the good times roll.”

— B. B. King

7. “And as long as people have problems, the blues can never die.”

— B. B. King

8. “Playing guitar is like telling the truth.”

— B. B. King

9. “No one can take it away from you.”

— B. B. King

10. “May I live forever. But may you live forever and a day.”

— B. B. King

11. “The blues are three L’s – living, loving and hopefully, laughing.”

— B. B. King

12. “I gave you seven children, but now you want to give them back.”

— B. B. King

13. “The blues was like that problem child that you may have had in the family. You was a little bit ashamed to let anybody see him, but you loved him. You just didn’t know how other people would take it.”

— B. B. King

14. “Music is good for everybody. They say it soothes the savage beast. Well, I think theirs a beast in all of us. So let’s get some more music and soothe all the beasts out there.”

— B. B. King

15. “There are so many sounds I still want to make, so many things I haven’t yet done.”

— B. B. King

16. “We are here because there are things that need our help. Like the planet. Like each other. Like animals. The world is like a garden, and we are its protectors.”

— B. B. King

17. “I can’t afford no liquor, all I can buy is beer and wine.”

— B. B. King

18. “I wanted to connect my guitar to human emotions.”

— B. B. King

19. “Religion began as a natural explanation of the universe. The problem started when people refused to accept new evidence.”

— B. B. King

20. “I’ve said that playing the blues is like having to be black twice. Stevie Ray Vaughan missed on both counts, but I never noticed.”

— B. B. King

21. “Elvis, he was unique. And he loved the blues, it was a pity he didn’t do more.”

— B. B. King

22. “Charlie Christian had no more impact on my playing than Django Reinhardt or Lonnie Johnson. I just wanted to play like him. I wanted to play like all of them. All of these people were important to me. I couldn’t play like any of them, though...”

— B. B. King

23. “The Blues? It’s the mother of American music. That’s what is is – the source.”

— B. B. King

24. “You never miss what you’ve never had. I never had any other life. I didn’t know any other life.”

— B. B. King

25. “When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.”

— B. B. King

26. “It seems like I always had to work harder than other people. Those nights when everybody else is asleep, and you sit in your room trying to play scales.”

— B. B. King

27. “My mother was a very beautiful lady, I thought. She was very good to me. I guess – she died when I was nine and a half, but if she had lived I probably wouldn’t be trying to play guitar. She wanted me to be known, but as something else. Not a guitar player.”

— B. B. King

28. “God made Blues right after he made woman.”

— B. B. King

29. “I call myself a blues singer, but you ain’t never heard me call myself a blues guitar man.”

— B. B. King

30. “We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about but try to be yourself while you’re doing so.”

— B. B. King

31. “The crowds treat me like my last name. When I go onstage people usually stand up, I never ask them to, but they do. They stand up and they don’t know how much I appreciate it.”

— B. B. King

32. “I can’t think of anyone I’ve mistreated. I’ve always thought that I am my brother’s keeper. And I believe there’s a ‘great spirit’ that takes care of all of us.”

— B. B. King

33. “Hard times don’t necessarily mean being poor all the time. I’ve known people that was a part of a family and always feel that the family likes everybody else but them. That hurts and that’s as deep a hurt as you can possibly get.”

— B. B. King

34. “The blues was bleeding the same blood as me.”

— B. B. King

35. “Albert King wasn’t my brother in blood, but he sure was my brother in Blues.”

— B. B. King

36. “I look at an audience kind of like meeting my in-laws for the first time. You want to be yourself, but you still want to be somebody that they like. When I go on the stage each night, I try my best to outguess my audience.”

— B. B. King

37. “Many people leave the country to see beautiful places. I just look out the window and see some of the most gorgeous scenery ever, right here in the USA.”

— B. B. King

38. “I liked blues from the time my mother used to take me to church. I started to listen to gospel music, so I liked that. But I had an aunt at that time, my mother’s aunt, who bought records by people like Lonnie Johnson, Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson and a few others.”

— B. B. King

39. “Water from the white fountain didn’t taste any better than from the black fountain.”

— B. B. King

40. “A lot of people believe what other people say.”

— B. B. King

41. “I don’t have a favorite song that I’ve written. But I do have a favorite song: ‘Always on My Mind,’ the Willie Nelson version. If I could sing it like he do, I would sing it every night. I like the story it tells.”

— B. B. King

42. “There’s a sadness to all kinds of music if you want to hear it. There’s also happiness to it if you want to hear it.”

— B. B. King

43. “Growing up, I was taught that a man has to defend his family. When the wolf is trying to get in, you gotta stand in the doorway.”

— B. B. King

44. “If you can’t get your songs to people one way, you have to find another.”

— B. B. King

45. “Jazz is the big brother of the blues. If a guy’s playing blues like we play, he’s in high school. When he starts playing jazz it’s like going on to college, to a school of higher learning.”

— B. B. King

46. “If you want to be a good blues singer, people are going to be down on you, so dress like you’re going to the bank to borrow money.”

— B. B. King

47. “Janis Joplin sings the blues as hard as any black person.”

— B. B. King

48. “The way I feel today, as long as my health is good and I can handle myself well and people still come to my concerts, still buy my CDs, I’ll keep playing until I feel like I can’t.”

— B. B. King

49. “I don’t like anybody to be angry with me. I’d rather have friends.”

— B. B. King

50. “I’ve always liked ladies all my life. I guess it started with my mom. So every time I saw a pretty lady, I thought, she’s pretty.”

— B. B. King