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B.B. King Heckled At Performance.

You better be on top of your game when some of these people spend their hard earned money on your show, gosh darn it.
:hmm:

I've been to shows that disappointed me for far less money. If the amount I spend has a direct correlation to the bug that will grow up my butt if I don't have my way ... that's my problem, not the artist's.

Frankly the sense of entitlement is laughably sad. The entire "you're not allowed to have a bad show on my dime!" thing is so typical.

Don't go to his shows. For you that'll work out the same as if he had retired as suggested. Or died.
:hmm:

You can spend your hard earned money elsewhere and avoid all of this drama over some entertainment. Wow.
:D

Seriously, at 88 he's still doing more gigs in a year than some of you do in a lifetime. He has well documented health issues... not that that's anyone's else's problem. Like I said, this thread is sadly predictable. And yeah, jackhole is appropriate.

"Screw empathy, I spent money!"
:mad:

LOL
 
You better be on top of your game when some of these people spend their hard earned money on your show, gosh darn it.
:hmm:

I've been to shows that disappointed me for far less money. If the amount I spend has a direct correlation to the bug that will grow up my butt if I don't have my way ... that's my problem, not the artist's.

Frankly the sense of entitlement is laughably sad. The entire "you're not allowed to have a bad show on my dime!" thing is so typical.

Don't go to his shows. For you that'll work out the same as if he had retired as suggested. Or died.
:hmm:

You can spend your hard earned money elsewhere and avoid all of this drama over some entertainment. Wow.
:D

Seriously, at 88 he's still doing more gigs in a year than some of you do in a lifetime. He has well documented health issues... not that that's anyone's else's problem. Like I said, this thread is sadly predictable. And yeah, jackhole is appropriate.

"Screw empathy, I spent money!"
:mad:

LOL
who cares how many gigs he does ....it's about quality,not quantity.....spending ones hard earned money would be an option if the show was billed "come see bb babble" ....but it ain't....he's asking full bore,and no one in is being told up front .....like a guy with some class would do........he's a guitar player dude....he ain't cured cancer,and just because he's lasted a while don't mean nothin'....

empathy is reserved for those who don't scam their fans.....y'know,the people that afforded him a lifetime of playing music for a living instead of grinding it out in some factory for forty years......
 
Again, completely predictable. At the least you got $200 worth of the same rant here. Call it square.
:D

People like this aren't fans. And unless you know otherwise BB King didn't ask for full bore, that's just one more self-serving assumption in a particularly self-serving thread.

Amazing how wound up some folks can get about entertainment.
:D
 
who cares how many gigs he does ....it's about quality,not quantity.....spending ones hard earned money would be an option if the show was billed "come see bb babble" ....but it ain't....he's asking full bore,and no one in is being told up front .....like a guy with some class would do........he's a guitar player dude....he ain't cured cancer,and just because he's lasted a while don't mean nothin'....

empathy is reserved for those who don't scam their fans.....y'know,the people that afforded him a lifetime of playing music for a living instead of grinding it out in some factory for forty years......

Who is scamming ANYBODY?

It's public knowledge that B.B. King is 88 years old. It's public knowledge that he's been performing since the 1940's. There seems to be a general understanding in society that as people age their activity level begins to diminish and they need to slow down. For the audience to disregard any of these factors is either incredibly selfish or simply willful ignorance.

Before I went to see B.B. play at the Crossroads festival in 2010 I spoke with some friends about the fact that I was going. They thought it was great. Some of them wanted to go. And some had been to previous Crossroads festivals. When I said that I was glad to finally be able to see B.B. King live one of my friends actually told me what the experience was going to be like: B.B. and several others sit on chairs in a semi-circle facing the crowd, and B.B. leads the set and talks with the audience. And that's what he did. Hell, he was even busting Robert Cray's balls as one of the young guys, talking about Cray's song "Smoking Gun" even though the song had come out some 25 years earlier.

All of this info is out there. It just takes a little bit of looking to find it all. Nobody is really hiding ANY of this. And again, empathy and rudimentary understanding about aging needs to get factored in here. B.B. is 88 years old and STILL performing. Does anyone here think with any kind of reasonable expectation that say, their grandparents could continue to work at a fairly high level some 20+ years past the typical retirement age in this country?

And then take a look at how so many of B.B.'s contemporaries passed. Many of them were FLAT BROKE. So broke that there wasn't even enough money for them to have a proper burial and headstone. Do you think B.B. is unaware of that fact? Do you think that perhaps he wants to break that pattern, and maybe be able to leave some money to his family? I know, these are all CRAZY considerations for someone in the twilight of their life.

This whole situation REEKS. Not of someone's desire to scam an audience. No. It's more insidious. It's this sickness that's been pervasive on the internet, where people think that they finally have a voice that people should listen to, and they want to air their outrage, whether it's righteous or not. So they're going to voice it as loud as possible. Even if it's phony outrage that's directed at an American institution who's also an old man of almost 90 and in poor health.
 
^ Personal responsibility? Sadly that became an unreasonable expectation a very long time ago.

Doing research to discover if a musician, presented "in concert", will play music like virtually 100% of other musicians do at any age when they perform? That's not very reasonable.

Reasonable would be making it clear what's going to go down, and selling tickets for that, not pulling an effective bait & switch.
 
at 88 he's still doing more gigs in a year than some of you do in a lifetime.

I think this is the main point being argued in this thread, i.e. is he really and truely doing gigs in the real sense of the word ?

Potential concert goers should be reminded ( granted, this should not be necessary...given his age) that there is minimal playing and maximum talking. This way, people can decide for themselves if they wish to attend his concerts. This would also ensure a more cival reception for the man, as everyone would know what to expect.
 
I think this is the main point being argued in this thread, i.e. is he really and truely doing gigs in the real sense of the word ?

According to my gf, her aunt and her kid, he put on a spectacular show last night in Ithaca. She got a surprise invite on thursday. I'd read this thread the day before, but kept my stupid mouth shut. He's old and likely pretty foggy much of the time, but he pulled it off last night. A few stories, but a ton of songs.

"Do you think that perhaps he wants to break that pattern, and maybe be able to leave some money to his family?"

I'm told that through the whole show he was hamming it up for the little one- smiling at her through most of the songs, talking TO her between them, handing his used pick to her every two songs or so (she has nine!) gave her a couple bbking necklaces and pins. At the end of the show he wouldn't leave without saying goodbye to "the little one", they had to drag the shy and tired little eleven year old up to hug the guy after he'd already pushed the show almost a half hour past when it was supposed to end. Heck of a personality, but I cannot help but think that he pulled it together to invest a little to get one more rabid, buy-every-box-set-and-rarity-and-shirt fan who will espouse his virtues to a bunch of other people who will also contribute to the King Family Foundation by buying [Music recordings].
 
The question of his money has been mentioned before in this thread. While he is certainly not by any means a millionaire, I would imagine, that he is not a pauper either.
what the on line sources are accuracy wise i can't say,but one says net worth,30 million.....a former manager is supposed to have sued in 2009 and alleges that king made 100 million...it's safe to assume that he lives very well....
 
what the on line sources are accuracy wise i can't say,but one says net worth,30 million.....a former manager is supposed to have sued in 2009 and alleges that king made 100 million...it's safe to assume that he lives very well....

Interesting.... I did not think he was worth anything near that amount. :eek:

I guess that knocks "the poor guy needs the money" arguement on the head. :D
 
I think this is the main point being argued in this thread, i.e. is he really and truely doing gigs in the real sense of the word ?

Potential concert goers should be reminded ( granted, this should not be necessary...given his age) that there is minimal playing and maximum talking. This way, people can decide for themselves if they wish to attend his concerts. This would also ensure a more cival reception for the man, as everyone would know what to expect.

Chances are most concert goers with $200 to spend probably have internet access too. Not looking into who you're paying that kind of money to see is only the fault of the person spending the money. Sometimes you lose when you gamble.
 
You better be on top of your game when some of these people spend their hard earned money on your show, gosh darn it.
:hmm:

I've been to shows that disappointed me for far less money. If the amount I spend has a direct correlation to the bug that will grow up my butt if I don't have my way ... that's my problem, not the artist's.

Frankly the sense of entitlement is laughably sad. The entire "you're not allowed to have a bad show on my dime!" thing is so typical.

Don't go to his shows. For you that'll work out the same as if he had retired as suggested. Or died.
:hmm:

You can spend your hard earned money elsewhere and avoid all of this drama over some entertainment. Wow.
:D

Seriously, at 88 he's still doing more gigs in a year than some of you do in a lifetime. He has well documented health issues... not that that's anyone's else's problem. Like I said, this thread is sadly predictable. And yeah, jackhole is appropriate.

"Screw empathy, I spent money!"
:mad:

LOL

That's one of the reasons "legacy" bands have to do the same guitar solos at concerts that were on their records 40 years ago. People want the band to sound like the record. For me, if you want to hear the record, put it on at home.
One of the reasons I dug concerts when I was young, were that the bands changed up arrangements and went for it. I've been to shows by bands like George Howard and Spyro Gyra were they just flat out killed and some people in the crowd bitched that it didn't sound like the record. I go to concerts because I trust the artist to be an artist and not a personal jukebox.;)
 
That's one of the reasons "legacy" bands have to do the same guitar solos at concerts that were on their records 40 years ago. People want the band to sound like the record. For me, if you want to hear the record, put it on at home.
One of the reasons I dug concerts when I was young, were that the bands changed up arrangements and went for it. I've been to shows by bands like George Howard and Spyro Gyra were they just flat out killed and some people in the crowd bitched that it didn't sound like the record. I go to concerts because I trust the artist to be an artist and not a personal jukebox.;)
Exactly.

If I see a band and they sound exactly like the album, I could have stayed home, listened to the album and put up a poster of the band and jiggled the poster to make it look like they were moving (Or not--depending on the band).

Much cheaper.
Or maybe just look them up on YouTube.


As for people who pay $200 to see anybody (other than a multi day festival or some such thing like that)--how do get the money to spend that much on a concert?