Flash forward in time about 30 years. I am publishing a music magazine in my hometown of
The show was great (of course) and B.B. King gave his usual professional and blistering performance. I waited for what seemed like hours after the show for the official word. Then it came. “Mr. King will see you now.” I’ll never forget those words as long as I live. I might as well been invited in to meet royalty – which I was. Blues royalty.
I stepped up on to the first step of his private bus and made my way in. You know that feeling like when you feel like you’re outside of your body watching yourself do something? That’s the feeling I had. I walked down the white carpeting in the aisle and watched as the little figure sitting on the couch in his bedroom in the back of the bus got bigger and bigger. What do you say to someone you’ve never met, but have admired since you were a teenager?
B.B. was gentle, gracious and a perfect gentleman. Everything he appears to be on stage and in realty, is. He signed a few autographs for me. Listened patiently as I told him my story about the old ’78 record I had as a kid, and answered my interview questions.
They say that you never want to meet your childhood heroes, because they can’t measure up to whatever you have built up in your mind. Well, I’m happy to say that I’m so glad that I met B.B. King. He turned out to be everything that I had thought and hoped he would be.
2 comments:
What a great story. B.B. is the best.
Yeah he is. The man has some kind of stamina. He's had a full life.
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