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Guitarists Trey Anastasio and Derek Trucks shared their thoughts on the great B.B. King, who passed away on Thursday at the age of 89.
Anastasio posted his statement on Phish’s website, which reads, “It’s literally impossible to overstate B.B. King’s influence on every single electric guitarist who followed his path. All of us who have ever bent a note owe him an enormous debt of gratitude.”
Anastasio was no stranger to King, as the two first performed together—along with The Roots—at Los Angeles’ Grand Olympic Stadium in February of 2000. The gig was part of a taping for the film All Access: Front Row. Backstage. Live!, which was produced by Relix / Jambands.com publisher Peter Shapiro. Anastasio went on to play with King once again, when the legendary guitarist helped Phish cover his own “Everyday I Have the Blues,” “The Thrill is Gone” and “Rock Me Baby” at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ on February 24, 2003.
Trucks penned a much lengthier tribute to King for Rolling Stone yesterday. Trucks, who took the stage with King at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 2011 and Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl in 2012, wrote about the blues guitarist’s incomparable legacy:
It felt like as long as he was here, everything was OK. There’s no John Coltrane, Ray Charles is gone, but B.B.‘s still here. Everyone knew he was sick and the last few times we saw him, we knew he was getting to the end of the road. But it kind of feels like you lost your other father. He was all of our dads. Every guitar player I know, going back to Eric [Clapton] or Dickey [Betts] or any of the guys I looked up to, it’s the same reverence from them to B.B. We’re all his kids.
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