B.B. King Comes To The Palace Theatre 10/8

For more than half a century, B.B. King has defined the blues for a worldwide audience with hits like "The Thrill is Gone," "Ridin' with the King" with Eric Clapton, and "When Love Comes to Town" with U2. He developed and perfected his signature style on his trademark guitar "Lucille," earning him a spot in both the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. King has been dominating the blues scene for most of his life, and only becomes more cherished and relevant with the passage of time.

CAPA presents B.B. King at the Palace Theatre (34 W. Broad St.) on Thursday, October 8, at 8 pm. Tickets are $50, $45, and $40 at the Ohio Theatre Ticket Office (39 E. State St.), all Ticketmaster outlets, or www.ticketmaster.com. To purchase tickets by phone, call (614) 469-0939 or (800) 745-3000. The Palace Theatre Ticket Office will open two hours prior to the performance. Students between the ages of 13-19 can purchase $5 High Five tickets while available. This Spectrum Series performance is made possible through the generous support of Univar, Larry and Donna James, and series sponsors David and Mo Meuse.

In his Mississippi youth, King played on street corners for nickels and dimes, and would sometimes play in as many as four towns a night. After hitchhiking to Memphis in 1947, he got his first big break on Sonny Boy Williamson's radio program. King soon had his own radio show and was performing across the country. It was at one of these shows in Arkansas that "Lucille" was born. After the dance hall was set ablaze during a fight, King ran back in to save his guitar. He later found out the fight was over a woman named Lucille, and named his guitar after her to remind himself to never get into a fight over a woman. Ever since, each one of King's trademark Gibson guitars has been called Lucille.

Over the years, King has developed one of the world's most identifiable guitar styles. Borrowing from Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker, and others, King integrates his precise and complex vocal-like string bends and left hand vibrato, both of which have become indispensable components of every rock guitarist's vocabulary. His economy, his every-note-counts phrasing, has been a model for thousands of players from Eric Clapton to George Harrison to Jeff Beck. King has mixed traditional blues, jazz, swing, mainstream pop, and jump into a unique sound.

King was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. He received NARAS' Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 1987 and a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006, along with honorary doctorates from several universities.

King continues to tour extensively, averaging more than 150 concerts per year around the world. Classics such as "Payin' The Cost To Be The Boss," "The Thrill Is Gone," How Blue Can You Get," "Everyday I Have The Blues," and "Why I Sing The Blues" are concert and fan staples. Over the years, he has had two #1 R&B hits, 1951's "Three O'Clock Blues" and 1952's "You Don't Know Me," and four #2 R&B hits, 1953's "Please Love Me," 1954's "You Upset Me Baby," 1960's "Sweet Sixteen, Part I," and 1966's "Don't Answer The Door, Part I." King's most popular crossover hit, 1970's "The Thrill Is Gone," went to #15 on the pop charts.

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