De speech van Bush voor B.B. King

One of America's unique gifts to the world is a music called the blues. And in that music two names are paramount -- B.B. King, and his guitar, Lucille. (Laughter.) It has been said that when John Lennon was asked to name his great ambition, he said, "to play the guitar like B.B. King." Many musicians have had that same goal, but nobody has ever been able to match the skill, or copy the sound of The King of the Blues.
He came up the hard way in the Deep South; living alone when he was nine years old; walking miles to school, and picking cotton for 35 cents a day. Barely out of his teens, he made his first trip to Memphis, Tennessee, with his guitar and $2.50 in his pocket. He made his name on Beale Street, and his studio recordings made him a national favorite. B.B. King has sold more than 40 million records. He won 14 Grammys. He has a place on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He's influenced generations of musicians from blues to rock, and he's performed in venues from roadside nightclubs to Carnegie Hall. He's still touring, and he's still recording, and he's still singing, and he's still playing the blues better than anybody else. In other words: The thrill is not gone. (Laughter.)
America loves the music of B.B. King, and America loves the man, himself. Congratulations. (Applause.)