YEAR
2013
INDUCTED BY
John Mayer
CATEGORY
Performers
Albert King isn’t a household name—he’s a household sound.
So says John Mayer about the towering guitar talent, Albert King. You can add Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaugh to the list of King disciples too.
Albert King
HALL OF FAME
ESSAY
By Andy Schwartz
Everything about Albert King was big.
He stood six feet four inches tall and weighed more than two hundred and fifty pounds. One fan who met the great blues guitarist and vocalist later recalled that “his hand was literally twice the size of mine.”
He played a big guitar, a triangular Gibson Flying V shaped like a rocket ship. He named it “Lucy” and played upside-down and left-handed without reversing the order of the strings. And he could play it loud, especially onstage, where his searing, overdriven lead lines streaked feedback like jet trails from a 747.
