Albert King, often billed as “King of the Blues Guitar,” was arguably at one time the world’s most widely imitated blues guitarist, although his self-taught left-handed method of playing with his axe turned upside down was a technique only a few of his followers (notably Otis Rush) would use. King’s licks reverberated through the work of contemporary blues bands across the country as well as in the music of British and American rock guitar idols including Eric Clapton, Mike Bloomfield, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. King, also a much-admired blues vocalist, was an icon among white blues-rock audiences – a phenomenon well-documented on his classic Live Wire-Blues Power album from the Fillmore West — yet maintained a following among black blues and soul listeners as well. Documentation of his earliest years is vague, and King-whose surname at birth may have been Nelson, Blevins, or Gilmore-only added to the confusion in the 1960s by claiming B.B. King as his brother (a relationship denied by B.B.), naming his guitar “Lucy” after B.B.’s “Lucille,” and further citing B.B.’s hometown of Indianola as his own. However, on his Social Security application in 1942, his birthplace was entered as “Aboden, Miss.,” likely based on his pronunciation of Aberdeen. King, who gave his birth date as April 25, 1923, was raised primarily in Arkansas, where he began performing, and later resided in Gary, Indiana, and Lovejoy, Illinois, a town near East St. Louis that provided the title of one of his popular albums for Stax Records in the 1970s. King, also a key figure in Memphis, where he often performed and record, died there on Dec. 21, 1992.
— Jim O’Neal
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