Best Of - B.B. King: King of the Blues

What It Takes®

Academy of Achievement

Film, Politics, Arts, Self-help, Sports, Society & Culture, Success, Literature, Humanitarian, Military, Social Justice, Technology, Podcast, Achievement, Music, Science

4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2022

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

BB King began life as a humble Mississippi cotton farmer, and ended up one of the most influential guitarists and singers of the past century. Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, The Rolling Stones and many others are among his disciples. During his lifetime he was celebrated by presidents, kings & queens - and declared a national treasure. The interview you’ll hear in this episode was recorded at the 2004 Academy of Achievement Summit in Chicago, and includes stories about King’s prowess on a cotton field as well his awakening to the racial injustice all around him. He recalls seeing the bodies of people who’d been lynched… and years later, the feeling he had the first time he arrived to play before an adoring crowd of white fans. This episode originally posted in 2015. The thrill is definitely not gone! (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2015-2022

Transcript

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0:00.0	Madame, this child is gifted, and I heard that enough that I started to believe it.
0:08.6	If you have the opportunity, not a perfect opportunity, and you don't take it, you may never have another
0:14.4	chance.
0:15.4	It all was so clear.
0:16.4	It was just like the picture started to form itself.
0:19.7	There was no way in which a lie could prevail over the truth, darkness over light, death over life.
0:27.0	Every day I wake up and decide. Today I'm going to love my life.
0:34.0	Decide.
0:39.0	My advice is if they don't break your leg once when you go in that place stay out of there. And then along come these differential experiences that you don't look for, you don't plan for, but boy you better not miss them.
0:52.0	This is what it Takes, a podcast about passion, vision, and perseverance.
0:57.0	I'm Alice Winkler.
0:58.0	On each episode of What It Takes takes we dig into the Academy of
1:03.0	Achievement's vault and pull out one recorded interview to share.
1:07.2	Now these are conversations with the most accomplished people from every
1:11.1	field, people with stories about struggle and doubt as well as grit and
1:16.6	determination. Does the name Riley B King ring any bells? A humble cotton
1:22.3	picker from Kilmichael Mississippi born to a family of sharecroppers.
1:26.1	If not, you surely know him by his stage name, BB King.
1:31.6	The thrill is gone.
1:34.0	The thrill is gone away.
1:38.0	The thrill is gone away.
1:40.0	The thrill is gone away.
	...

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