“I remember he had these massive hands… I said, ‘Mr King, my name is Joanne and I’m 13, and I think I’m going to be a blues guitarist’”: Joanne Shaw Taylor’s life-changing first meeting with the great B.B. King

I played on Bad Case Of Love. You’re kind of spoiled for choice because I was in early, obviously, being part of the label. I knew of the project before they approached their wishlist of artists.

Thinking back to the first time I met B.B., it was actually one of the first gigs my parents took me to when I was really getting into blues. He played at the NEC in Birmingham, and he was handing out guitar picks at the end of the night.

My dad was like, “Go and get a guitar pick.” And I was quite shy, I was like, “No, no…” My dad said, “Look, out of all the people here: there aren’t many 13-year-old girls in the audience. Trust me, he wants you to have a guitar pick.”

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So I legged it down to the stage as quickly as I could and, unfortunately, when I got down there he’d left the stage, but he happened to turn around. So I just waved at him and he came back onto the stage and knelt down in front of me.

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I remember he had these massive hands and they’d got massive ruby rings on them. He said, “Howdy young lady, I’m B.B. King.” I said, “Mr King, my name is Joanne and I’m 13, and I think I’m going to be a blues guitarist. Do you have a guitar pick I could have?” But he’d run out of guitar picks. So he took his necklace off and put it on me.

Three years later, I was opening up for him. I did a few dates with him through Europe in 2001, I believe.

It’s a massive privilege to be able to say that, but that night, I kind of felt like that was a seal of approval in my little 13-year-old mind that I told B.B. King I was going to be a blues woman, and he gave me a necklace. So I thought I was the chosen one!

• B.B. King's Blues Summit 100 is out now via KTBA Records
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.