BB King talks about Elvis Presley in rare, surprising interview | HO!!

In the smoky heart of Memphis in the early 1950s, a young bluesman named Riley B. King was already beginning to make a name for himself. The radio called him “Beale Street Blues Boy” — a name that would soon be shortened to something the world would never forget: B.B. King. Around the same time, another young man with a shy smile and slicked-back hair was hanging around the same studios, trying to find his sound. His name was Elvis Presley.

Few people realize that before Elvis became the “King of Rock ’n’ Roll,” he was quietly learning from another kind of king — the King of the Blues.

A Meeting in Memphis

“They said Elvis was shy,” B.B. once recalled with a gentle chuckle. “When I first met him in the studio in Memphis, he didn’t talk much. He’d just watch, listen, and nod. But he was polite — always polite. Called me ‘sir.’ I liked that.”

At the time, B.B. was already performing and hosting a radio show on WDIA, the first all-Black radio station in America. He sang, played, and spun records, helping introduce Memphis to the blues that would shape generations of musicians. Elvis, still a teenager, was soaking it all in.

B.B. remembered those early days fondly in his 1996 autobiography, writing, “Elvis was different. He was handsome, quiet, and polite to a fault. He spoke with that thick molasses Southern accent and called me ‘sir.’”

What neither man could have known then was that their worlds — gospel, blues, country, and rock — were about to collide in ways that would forever change American music.

The Birth of Rock ’n’ Roll

When Elvis began recording at Sun Records, his sound — a raw, pulsing mix of blues and country — didn’t yet have a name. But as soon as his voice hit the airwaves, something electric happened. Crowds grew, rumors spread, and the world suddenly wanted to know this boy from Tupelo who sang like no one else.

At first, B.B. didn’t think much of him. “He was okay,” King admitted years later. “I didn’t see at that time what I saw later on.” But that would change soon enough.

By 1956, Elvis had signed with RCA, and his fame exploded. “He had everything,” B.B. said. “The looks, the talent, the charm — everything. You started looking at this guy and thinking, ‘God Almighty, he’s got it all.’”

That same year, the two musicians would cross paths again at an event that few people talk about today — an event that showed the world who Elvis truly was.

The Night Elvis Crossed the Color Line

In December 1956, Memphis’s WDIA Goodwill Review brought together the best Black musicians in the region for an annual charity concert at the Ellis Auditorium. The show raised money for underprivileged Black children and drew thousands from the community.

It was an all-Black event — and in the segregated South of the 1950s, that meant something. So when a white superstar like Elvis Presley showed up backstage, the entire room froze.

Elvis hadn’t planned to perform. His friend, DJ George Klein, said the visit was spontaneous. “Elvis’s biggest concern was not to distract from the show,” Klein wrote. But when soul legend Rufus Thomas spotted him backstage, he couldn’t resist pulling him out to the crowd.

“As soon as the audience saw Elvis,” Klein remembered, “the place went crazy.”

For B.B. King, that moment said everything. “Remember, this was the ’50s,” he said later. “For a young white boy to show up at an all-Black event took guts. He wasn’t there to make a statement — he just wanted to hear the music. He was showing his roots.”

After the show, Elvis posed for pictures with B.B. King, treating him “like royalty.” King would never forget it.

“I believe he was proud of those roots,” B.B. said. “He’d tell people I was one of his influences. Maybe it wasn’t true, but I liked hearing it. I liked hearing him give Memphis credit.”

Rumors and Racism

But fame can twist the truth. By the late 1950s, as Elvis’s popularity exploded, an ugly rumor began circulating in the Black community — that Elvis had once said, “The only thing Negroes can do for me is buy my records and shine my shoes.”

The quote, of course, was a lie.

In 1957, Jet Magazine launched an investigation. Reporter Louie Robinson interviewed Elvis directly and published the article “The Truth About That Elvis Presley Rumor.” Elvis’s response was simple: “I never said anything like that, and people who know me know I wouldn’t have.”

Jet even asked Black musicians who had worked with Elvis for their thoughts. Pianist Dudley Brooks, who had collaborated with him on film soundtracks, said, “I can’t imagine Presley saying that — not knowing him the way I do.”

Elvis himself added, “Rock and roll was here long before I came along. Nobody can sing that kind of music like colored people. Let’s face it — I can’t sing it like Fats Domino can. But I always loved that kind of music. I used to go to the colored churches when I was a kid.”

B.B. King stood by him too. “I don’t think Elvis ripped anyone off,” he said. “Once something’s out there, anyone can play it. He just had his own interpretation.”

Brothers in Blues

By the early 1970s, their paths crossed again — this time in Las Vegas. Elvis was headlining the Hilton Hotel’s main theater, while B.B. performed downstairs in the lounge.

“Elvis helped me get that gig,” King told journalist Jack Dennis in a rare 2010 interview. “He put in a call for me. I worked to standing-room-only crowds, and many nights, after my show, I’d go upstairs to his suite. We’d play guitars, sing, laugh. He’d call out, ‘Play it, Blues Boy!’ and I’d start up Lucille. That was his way of relaxing.”

Then B.B. grinned. “We were the original Blues Brothers,” he joked. “That man knew more blues songs than most people in the business. Some nights it felt like we sang every one of them.”

Respect and Legacy

In his later years, B.B. King spoke openly about Elvis’s place in music history — and about the cultural divide that still shadowed their friendship.

“Elvis didn’t steal from anyone,” he wrote. “He just played the music he grew up with. That’s what we all do. I think Elvis had integrity. They didn’t make a mistake when they called him ‘The King.’”

He paused during that 2010 interview and looked down, as if hearing an old guitar riff echo through time. “You know,” he said softly, “people still argue about who started what — who owns what sound. But when I think of Elvis, I think of heart. That boy had soul.”

A Shared Legacy

Today, more than four decades after Elvis’s death, that rare friendship between two kings — one of rock, one of blues — still feels like a bridge across America’s most painful divide.

Both men rose from poverty in the Deep South, both were shaped by gospel and rhythm, and both understood that music had the power to heal what society tried to separate.

In a segregated world, they shared something few people did — respect.

“Elvis was one of the good ones,” B.B. King once said with a sad smile. “He didn’t see color. He just saw people. And he loved the music — all of it.”

A Final Note

When B.B. King passed away in 2015, tributes poured in from around the world — including from Elvis Presley’s estate. Graceland released a statement calling him “a lifelong friend and one of the greatest musicians of all time.”

And somewhere in Memphis, perhaps on Beale Street, the echoes of those two voices — one blues, one rock — still blend in the air like a single song.

Because in the end, as B.B. King once said, “Music is the thing that brings us all together. Elvis knew that. So did I.”