You don’t need to be a musicologist to understand why B.B. King was a modern American icon. The charismatic blues legend carried almost as much cultural weight on-screen as he did onstage.

B.B. King is shown performing during opening night of the 87th season of the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in 2008. King died in his sleep at his Las Vegas home on May 14, his lawyer said.

King entered the music industry as a disc jockey in Memphis, Tennessee, after serving in World War II. He earned the name B.B. after he was called "the Beale Street Blues Boy" and that nickname ...

B.B. King’s name, face, music and heavenly finger vibrato were known far and wide long before the 20th century came to a close. But for the first half of his life, King toiled in near obscurity.

But B.B. King was a person, one of our best ever, and he lived a life befitting his legacy. These 10 facts only represent a fraction of how fascinating King’s life and music was: ...

B.B. King was born a sharecropper's son in Mississippi, came of age in Memphis, Tennessee, and became the ambassador who brought his all-American music to his country and the world.

Ryan Alfieri May 15, 2015 Getty Image The music world was delivered a brutal blow on Friday morning after the passing of the “King of Blues,” B.B. King.

Stax Museum's "B.B. King in Memphis" photo exhibit features images from King’s 1982 Labor Day weekend concert at the Mud ...

King became known as “the Blues Boy of Beale Street,” then the Beale Street Blues Boy, shortened to Bee Bee King for his on-air nickname, and later simply B.B. King.

Born Riley B. King on this day, Sept. 16, 1925, he would move from Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee where he would take on the name "Blues Boy," which he shortened to BB.

Four members of B.B. King’s band will portray themselves in 'The Thrill Is Gone,' an upcoming film starring Wendell Pierce as the bluesman.

B.B. King’s name, face, music and heavenly finger vibrato were known far and wide long before the 20th century came to a close. But for the first half of his life, King toiled in near obscurity.