Guitarist B.B. King, who took the blues from rural juke joints to the mainstream and influenced a generation of rock guitarists from Eric Clapton to Stevie Ray Vaughan, has died, the Los Angeles Times reported late on Thursday. He was 89.[contentblock id=1 img=adsense.png]
King, who will forever be linked with the Gibson guitars he named Lucille, died in Las Vegas, the newspaper quoted his attorney as saying. King was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in the 1980s. He was hospitalized in April for a few days after suffering from dehydration related to the disease. In May he said in a Facebook post that he was in hospice care at his home.[contentblock id=2 img=adsense.png]
King had a deep, resonant singing voice and, despite having what he called “stupid fingers,” an immediately recognizable guitar sound. His unique style of trilling the strings with a fluttering left-hand vibrato, which he called it “the butterfly,” helped shape early rock. He delivered stinging single-note licks that brimmed with emotion and were copied by white rock guitarists including Jeff Beck and Bonnie Raitt.