"The King of Blues" and his trusty Gibson guitar named Lucille will return to a Bloomington stage this winter for the first time in more than 25 years.\nThe IU Auditorium announced B.B. King -- the guitar and blues virtuoso who has influenced countless popular musicians in a career spanning more thna 50 years -- will return to the stage as part of his 80th birthday tour.\n"We've been working for three or four years to make it happen," IU Auditorium Director Doug Booher said. "We had to find out when he was on tour and when we had openings."\nTickets go on sale Sept. 16, which also marks King's 80th birthday. The first 150 tickets sold at the box office for the Dec. 4 show will come with a complimentary piece of birthday cake. Fans will also get a chance to sign an oversized birthday card for King, which will be presented to him the night of the concert.\n"We should do very well (on Friday)," Booher said. "It's a way to celebrate his birthday and have a good time at the box office."\nKing last performed in Bloomington in 1979, when his show at the Auditorium was flanked by such world-class acts of the time as Dick Gregory, Johnny Cash and Rush. Blues guitarist Ray Buchanan opened the show for King, who has brought countless bluesmen to share the stage with him in nearly seven decades of touring.\nThis year fellow bluesman Kenny Wayne Shephard will open the Dec. 4 show. Shephard won acclaim as a teenage blues prodigy at age 13 and has had a solid recording career as an adult.\nKing has earned a reputation as a world-class showman, mixing humorous storytelling with classic guitar licks and blues wails. He has toured and performed as part of "The B.B. King Orchestra" and "B.B. King and Friends."\nTickets will sell for $25 to $45, which continues King's appeal of fan-friendly, affordable shows, Booher said.\n"He's called the King of Blues for a reason," Booher said. "He's a great performer. Audiences will love seeing him play."\nKing's career dates back to the 1940s, encompassing more than 100 solo albums and a nonstop touring schedule. During his prime, King often played more than 300 shows a year.\n"He's an international superstar legend," said IU professor Andy Hollinden, who teaches numerous rock history courses, including History of the Blues. "He has that Tom Hanks thing going on. Everybody likes him."\nKing's famous guitars have become as synonymous with the blues as King himself. The Gibson electric was named after Lucille, a woman at the center of a fight that burned down a venue early in King's career.\nKing's notoriety is such that his name is recognized anywhere in the world, Hollinden said.\n"When the Dalai Lama comes to town, people of all faiths come to welcome him," Hollinden said. "It's like that with King and the blues. They may not be blues fans, but they'll go see him. It's like a Catholic coming to see the Dalai Lama."\nAs he approaches 80 years old, King enjoys good health and has become a national diabetes spokesman. He continues to tour regularly, and is a professed vegetarian, non-smoker and non-drinker.\nKing has influenced and played with a long list of blues musicians and has won seven Grammy Awards as well as the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a member of both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame. \nAfter nearly seven decades of performing and recording, Booher said he expects King's show to draw a large, diverse following.\n"The blues has only grown in popularity since B.B. King started playing," Booher said. "It's grown and gained widespread reception; you can see proof in the blues you hear on the radio and the collections in the record store."
Tickets go on sale Sept. 16. at the IU Box Office at 855-1103 or at www.iuauditorium.com.
