After Putting It Off

for 30 years or so, I finally got around to seeing blues great, B.B. King, who performed tonight at Reno's Grand Sierra Resort. I have been wanting to see him, and he has appeared in northern Nevada many times over the years (he's lived in Las Vegas for over 30 years), but I just never got around to it. Since he's 82 years old and has some health problems, including diabetes, I decided I better see him in concert.

He may be old and he had to sit on a chair the entire time because of his bad knees, but he's still sharp as a tack and his guitar playing is intact. King also loves to talk; he and my landlord should get together sometime and see which one can talk the other to death first. The capacity crowd enjoyed his several minutes of monologues sandwiched between the music. The band is top notch, and King's nephew, Walter Riley King, was there with him. I am, however, a bit surprised that none of King's numerous kids was interested enough or talented enough to go into show business or at least share a stage with him (as noted on this blog a couple or so years ago, according to an interview he gave to the New York Times, he has fifteen kids by fifteen different women, surely a show business record of sorts).

In any case, he was great. He and his band performed for over 90 minutes.

I have been a big fan of blues, both the electric and country, since around 1969. King is the last of the great blues artists of the twentieth century and is the most famous. I have many recordings from many different blues artists, and I will probably get more in the coming the years since I like the music so much. Unfortunately, there are few people living today who have followed in the greats' footsteps.

King is one of those people who have made the world a much better place.