B.B. King Changes Broken Guitar String Mid-Song at Farm Aid, 1985 and Doesn’t Miss a Beat

Last week, after we learned of the pass­ing of B.B. King, Josh Jones high­light­ed some elec­tric live per­for­mances of the blues leg­end — per­for­mances that put his vir­tu­os­i­ty on full dis­play. Yes­ter­day, an Open Cul­ture read­er sent us a pret­ty amaz­ing clip that shows what a musi­cian King was at heart. The scene is Farm Aid, 1985, attend­ed by a crowd of 80,000 peo­ple. The song is “How Blue Can You Get.” And the key moment comes at the 3:10 mark, when King busts a gui­tar string, then man­ages to replace it before the song fin­ish­es min­utes lat­er. All the while, he keeps the song going, nev­er miss­ing a beat and singing the blues. Enjoy.

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via Gui­tar Play­er

Relat­ed Con­tent:

The Thrill is Gone: See B.B. King Play in Two Elec­tric Live Per­for­mances

B.B. King Explains in an Ani­mat­ed Video Whether You Need to Endure Hard­ship to Play the Blues

Chuck Berry Takes Kei­th Richards to School, Shows Him How to Rock (1987)