B.B. King and The Power of Showing Up
Soon, I'm heading off to California for a week to visit family and get some much need R&R. My son is joining me, and as it's been quite awhile since his last time out there, we have a lot planned. Some, the usual — Universal Studios (always a favorite of mine) and Disneyland (which is hard not to do considering it's all of 15 minutes from the house). Some, a little special — for me, that means we're going to see B. B. King perform.
Now, many of you know that I play the guitar. I actually taught myself to play (writing that just made me realize that I shouldn't have been surprised when I started indie-publishing — I always seem take that kind of road), and the music that I fell in love with, the music that I used to unlock the secrets of the fretboard, was Blues. I love the Blues with a capital 'B'.
As a Blues lover, I naturally listened to B. B. King, and like many guitarists before me, King's music has been an ever-lasting influence on my playing. That, in itself, would be enough to be excited about seeing him. But it goes beyond that.
See, I was fifteen when I first picked up the guitar. Every summer I would visit my family in California. And L. A. being a big, happening sort of city, often had B. B. King in town playing while I was there. The problem: he was always playing in bars and clubs. Of course, I was too young to get in, so no B. B. for me. In all those years, only once was he playing at a concert hall, but it was literally the day after I left.
Flash-forward many years to 2001. As a gift, my darling wife gets us tickets to see B. B. in Atlantic City. A few days before the concert, on September 11th . . . well, you know what happened. Needless to say, Mr. King cancelled his performance in honor of all the lives lost that day. He did schedule a make-up show, but we weren't able to attend.
A few years beyond that, B. B. decided to come to Lancaster,PA (where we were living at the time) and my incredible wife managed to snag some tickets. Finally, after well over a decade of wanting and trying, I finally got to see the man. By this point, diabetes had struck him hard and he could not stand for a show. Still, despite being seated the entire time, he blew away that theater with his powerful, elegant guitar-work and his equally compelling voice.
Several weeks earlier we had seen Ray Charles in this same theater. Only a few days after, Ray Charles passed away. So, seeing B. B., I worried we might jinx the man. Luckily, another decade later, he is still going strong. I never thought I'd get to see him twice in my life, but it looks like I just might get that opportunity. In his 80s now, he still plays shows practically every night of the year.
And that, my friends, is the biggest deal of all. They say 90% of success is showing up. Well, here's a guy who still keeps showing up. Gives me hope as a writer that if I keep putting out the work, you'll all start reading it more and more, and maybe I'll find myself in my 80s, still showing up.
