I have an interest in obituaries of all kinds (like my dad says, "Obits are the Irish sport pages"), but when it comes to the deaths of musicians, a retrospect or glimpse into their lives provides so much creative energy for me because their genuine love for art is so inspiring. I had the good fortune to see B.B. (his nickname that stood for "Blues Boy") King live once in my life as he played a show with Buddy Guy about a decade ago. King sauntered up to his chair, took a seat, grabbed the love of his life (his affectionately named guitar, Lucille), and the blues poured out. I felt the notes, the rhythm, and the power of King's vibratos, slides and trills.

Lucille, the name King bestowed on all of his guitars, was named so because of an amazing story in King's life (as told to NPR):

"I used to play a place in Arkansas called Twist, Ark., and they used to have a little nightclub there that we played quite often. When we didn't have any other place to play, we were always welcome to play there. Well, it used to get quite cold in Twist, and they used to take something look like a big garbage pail and set it in the middle of the floor, half-fill it with kerosene. They would light that fuel, and that's what we used for heat. And generally, the people would dance around it, you know, never disturb this container. But this particular night, two guys start to fight and then one of them knocked the other one over on this container, and when they did, it spilled on the floor. Now it was already burning, so when it spilled, it looked like a river of fire, and everybody ran for the front door, including yours truly. But when I got on the outside, then I realized that I'd left my guitar inside. I went back for it. The building was a wooden building, and it was burning so fast when I got my guitar, it started to collapse around me. So I almost lost my life trying to save the guitar. But the next morning, we found that these two guys who was fighting was fighting about a lady. I never did meet the lady, but I learned that her name was Lucille. So I named my guitar Lucille and reminded me not to do a thing like that again."

B.B. King, a legend, one of THE faces of the blues and music in general and one of THE hands of guitars, passed away at the age of 89 on May 14, 2015. King's life had plenty reason to sing the blues - his mom died when he was nine years old, by 14 his father was gone and he was left to pick cotton as a teenager to survive. He served in the Army and later came his big break as he was working at a radio station and given the exposure he deserved.

With King, the outpouring of love and praise is to be expected because of his place in music history, but as importantly, the memories include his charismatic and loving traits as a human being. Buddy Guy remembered King saying, "BB King was the greatest guy I ever met."

King's effect was not only felt worldwide but his sound influenced many different genres of music. King has gotten praise and love from so many since his passing, I thought I'd point out some of my favorite remembrances:

T Bone Burnett told Time: "B.B. King was, is, and will remain an American hero of the highest order. He rose from deep Southern poverty to carry the true history and the highest spirit of our people around the world with a most extraordinary grace and generosity, following Louis Armstrong out of the Mississippi Delta to become one of our most significant cultural ambassadors. The music and the history he carried in his heart and gave to us in the most openhanded way will long be remembered. In his music, he conjured the very soul of our country."

Guitarist Derek Trucks told Rolling Stone: "You just needed one word, one note with B.B. No one has that. No one lived the life he lived. None of the quote-unquote 'torchbearers' have that history, that spirit. There's a bunch of people out here that are going to carry on the memory of it, but he did it...He left an amazing legacy and a bunch of disciples....He was always a sweetheart. He always treated you like a long lost friend. It was pure grace with him. There was really nobody like him....We're all his kids."

Rapper Big KRIT, a fellow Mississippian, told Rolling Stone, "The music represented soul. There was pain and frustration in it, but there was also the understanding that everything's going to be better in the end. The grit and passion in the music told me this was someone who really meant what he was saying." He got to meet King who recorded a track with Krit, "Praying Man," and after meeting him, Krit was in awe, "Someone who had done so much didn't have to be that humble."

John Mayer on his Facebook page: "The facts about BB will never fade: he was a pioneer in the inception of electric blues music and he was its grand ambassador generations later. He will forever inspire guitar players to argue (successfully) that less is more, that heart will always win over mind. Whenever your heart hurts and you don't know if you have it in you right then and there to make sense of it, put on some B.B. King and feel what happens. Today, B.B.'s music is going to do something it's never done before: help us through the blues we have from losing him."

The New York Times quoted music historian Peter Guralnick who noted that Mr. King's influence helped to spread the blues through “the urbanity of his playing, the absorption of a multiplicity of influences, not simply from the blues, along with a graciousness of manner and willingness to adapt to new audiences and give them something they were able to respond to.”

Trey Anastasio from Phish told Rolling Stone: "It's literally impossible to overstate B.B. King’s influence on every single electric guitarist who followed in his path. All of us who have ever bent a note owe him an enormous debt of gratitude. When B.B. bent a note, it sounded like an amazingly soulful singer. He could shape it at will, and it sung out, like it was coming straight from his soul."

So yeah, he was loved.

I'd like to end with a video that I just saw for the first time this weekend thanks to my cousin Mike who posted it in memory of BB. This video tells you everything you need to know about this man, the soul, the blues, his charismatic smile and demeanor, his appreciation of his idols that came before him, his love for music and people (his 75% man / 25% musician quote is amazing), and most strikingly, his spirit, a will that seems to defeat whatever doubts and negativity that pervade throughout life, by playing, listening, and loving what he did. What a man, what a life, what an inspiration.

RIP.