Thomas reportedly played a significant role in giving King’s songs early radio play. While in Memphis, King was exposed to brilliant musicianship on Beale Street and met singer Rufus Thomas, who was also a disc jockey for radio station WDIA. In 1948 after moving to Memphis, Tenn., King met the legendary Sonny Boy Williamson-whom he had seen perform in Indianola, Miss.-who let him do a song on his radio program. Among his most memorable song lyrics was: “The only person who loved me was my mother. Work, he said, took his mind off his pain. King wrote in his 1996 autobiography, “Blues All Around Me,” that “My memory says that from ages 10 until 13, I lived alone.” As a teenager, a girl he loved was crushed to death in a highway accident. King had battled Type 2 diabetes for about two decades, although at press time the cause of death had not been revealed.ĭuring his 70 years as a performer, King influenced practically every blues and rock ’n roll guitarist of note, including George Harrison, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Carl Wilson, Ernie Isley, Johnny Winter, Jimmy Hendrix, Bonnie Raitt, Eddie Van Halen, Robert Cray, Lenny Kravitz and Keb Mo. King, one of the greatest interpreters of the blues and to a generation of musicians one of the industry’s finest guitarists, died May 14 asleep at his home in Las Vegas.
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