Sixty-six years passed from the time in 1948 when Riley King auditioned for a spot on Sonny Boy Williamson's radio program, until his final performance at the House of Blues on October 3, 2014 in Chicago. His life was a remarkable odyssey from a sharecropper's cabin to the pinnacle of success. We'll never know how many millions of miles he logged on his tour bus in the 50s and 60s —he and his band essentially lived on the road in the early years doing over 300 shows per year. To the average person that seems utterly exhausting, but Riley King was no ordinary person.

He was born on September 16, 1925 to Albert and Nora King, who were sharecroppers on the Berclair cotton plantation in the Mississippi Delta. When he was four years old his parents split, and Riley and his mother left the Delta for Karmichael in the hill country where his mother's kin lived. Riley admitted his memory was sketchy about this period, but he remembered being about eight when his mother left him to be with a new man. After she left he was raised by his maternal grandmother. During this time his mother's health also began to fade.

One morning Riley and his grandmother climbed onto a horse-drawn wagon to visit his 25 year-old mother, who at this point was blind and near death. In his autobiography he recounts that, with her few remaining breaths she gave him this advice, which he carried with him for the rest of his life: "People will love you if you show love to them...just remember that son."

He remembered his grandmother dying a little more than a year after his mother, but noted that researchers have pointed out to him that according to records it was five years later. In any case, it was a tight-knit community on the Flake Cartledge farm. He had friends and relatives to look out for him, but he became a loner, living alone in the sharecropper cabin that had been his home since leaving the Delta. Riley worked for Flake Cartledge, who was white, and considered him a fair man—it was Cartledge who bought him his first guitar and allowed him to pay if off over time.

Riley calculated that he walked the equivalent of the distance to the Moon during his time in the fields behind a pair of mules. Thus, the miles sitting comfortably on the tour bus probably didn't phase him. It's hard to believe, given the fact that he was a radio DJ for five years, and given his polished stage presence, but as a child Riley was a stutterer. Fortunately, there was a caring teacher at his one-room country school who helped him to overcome his stuttering, and also taught him many important life lessons.

On the farms, tractor drivers earned nearly three times more than field laborers, so Riley set his sights on becoming a tractor driver. Flake Cartledge, contrary to local customs, made the wise decision to hire a black man to be the farm's foreman. Riley said that everyone on the farm was so thankful to have a black foreman, that they worked extra hard to make sure he kept his job. He was also the farm's tractor driver and taught Riley how to handle a tractor. At age eighteen Riley returned to the Delta and worked as a tractor driver, and during his off time he also played and sang with a gospel group. The tractor turned out to be a very fortuitous decision, because the selective service board in his county considered tractor drivers to be essential workers. After Army basic training he returned home and was spared being sent overseas— this was in 1943.

To learn about what happens after Riley King leaves Mississippi and becomes B.B. King, I highly recommend his autobiography written with David Ritz. This is a treasure for B.B. King fans and blues lovers, it's full of details about his interactions, insights into his playing and influences, and a great read. Although it's not nearly as detailed, the 2012 film B.B. King: The Life of Riley, is also excellent.

The decision to present a brief glimpse into his early life was to give you a better appreciation of what an exceptional human being he was. He witnessed firsthand, injustice, cruelty, and oppression—even the sight of a young man black hanging in front of a courthouse. He had every reason to be angry, bitter, and resentful. Instead he took his mother's final words to heart. He spread love, and as she promised him, he was one of the most beloved entertainers in modern times. He learned as a child the wisdom of treating people as individuals, regardless of race. People sensed his love, kindness, and goodwill towards all, and were drawn to him. At a time when blues was on the decline, he transformed himself and helped to make the blues into a cultural phenomenon, and profoundly touched peoples lives.

In the film mentioned above, King recounts arriving at the Fillmore West and seeing throngs of young white people lined up around the building waiting to get in, and thinking he was at the wrong venue. During his performance their enthusiastic standing ovations between songs brought him to tears.