“I almost chopped my thumb off once. Just before I left home, I was about ten or eleven years old, and I was trying to open a bone. Can you imagine that? A bone! I was trying to get the marrow out of a bone, and I took the ax, and I went to chop it, and something slipped, and the ax went right down there and damn near cut it off.”

American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer

B. B. King was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is known for shaping electric blues with a polished solo style and for becoming a major figure in the music of the 20th century. His playing drew attention for fluid string bending, a bright vibrato, and sharply clipped picking, traits that influenced many later electric blues musicians. He performed and recorded widely, and his name became closely associated with the sound of modern blues guitar.