How Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse ended up in new book about B.B. King

It’s one thing to be able to write a book on your hero but to also to be able to call your hero a friend is rare. For author Charles Sawyer, that was the relationship with the late Blues icon B.B. King.

Sawyer spent decades documenting some of the most memorable moments of King’s on-stage life but also captured intimate details of his world away from the stage. All of it is explored in his new book titled B.B. King: From Indianola to Icon: A Personal Odyssey with the “King of the Blues” out on August 30. The 81-year-old not only writes about moments from King’s life that even the biggest fan of the “Thrill Is Gone” artist may never have heard before but also shares photos that he took of the larger-than-life figure that have never been shared before until today.

It all started back in 1968 when Sawyer met and started writing and photographing B.B King which lead to Sawyer publishing a biography of the legendary bluesman in 1980 called The Arrival of B.B. King: The Authorized Biography. Now 42 years later, he is still helping expand King’s legacy and found some new friends along the way, including Toronto Raptors Head Coach Nick Nurse.

Sawyer is hoping in the near future to hold a book signing in Toronto.

CityNews Music and Sports Reporter Lindsay Dunn spoke to Charles Sawyer ahead of the release of his book about his friendship with B.B. King, helping keep his legacy alive and how he and Raptors Head Coach Nick Nurse became good friends before even meeting each other.

(Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.)

Lindsay Dunn: Congratulations on the book Charles. I know there was a lot of love and time put into this book by you and your wife, who was the editor of this. How are you feeling on release day knowing so many around the world are finally going to see some of these photos that have never been released before and hear stories that only you can tell?

Charles Sawyer: Can I get back to you on that? (laughs) I mean, it is a big day. I received one author’s copy about a month ago and that was super emotional. I knew what should be on every single page, but I didn’t know if it would be there and I just didn’t know how it would look and I didn’t know how the experience would be when you’re looking at the pages. Every time I turned the page, I would wonder … is it there? Is it what I expected? Is it beautiful? And I couldn’t have been more thrilled and more excited.

The text is there to illustrate the photos. And first and foremost, it is a photographic record of my journey. So it is a big deal. It’s a huge deal.

 

LD: You were there for so many of the biggest moments of his career and life. You tell this great story in the book of him missing a flight to Halifax to a journey only B.B. King could do involving him marching his infamous ‘Lucille’ guitar to the manufacturer, to being there when they laid him to rest in May of 2015. You were just one of four people asked to give a eulogy at his funeral. Was this an emotional process — to share some of these moments?

CS: I can’t talk about that day without talking about the B.B. King museum. I had to ask the publisher for this book if I could share the photos about the museum and basically they had to agree to double the size of the book, and they said “Go ahead and do it.”  I remember before I went up to go speak at his funeral my son Sam whispered in my ear “Dad, speak up because the mic sucks!” Then my wife shortly after leans over to me and says something similar. So, I walk up to the podium and there is this short man behind the stage who tells me to “speak up because the mic isn’t great.” So I walk up to the mic and I said “I’m Charlie Sawyer and I wrote a book on B.B. King” and I hear from the audience “louder!”  (laughs) Of course I recognized that voice, it was my wife’s! It was one of the greatest honors of my life to be asked to read a eulogy at his funeral and to be able to share these moments.

 

You taught the History of Blues in America at Harvard and in 2004 you wrote about how King came to your class to speak with your students. You are a musician yourself, part of the 2120 South Michigan Avenue blue band and were able to perform with him on that day. Can you take me into that moment and how you were feeling knowing you were not only going to perform alongside your friend, but one of the best?

CS: You know, I was very nervous in the anticipation of it all. The anticipation was tremendous. And it relied on a few coincidences that were quite extraordinary. One was that I had already reserved a performance space on campus, not knowing if he was coming in and then the day before he was in Florida, the date of my class and the day after he’s in Worcester, Massachusetts. So all he had to do was to hurry from Florida in between shows… (laughs) and I told him, you don’t know what to do for me and for my local reputation!

When the bus arrived, I got on the bus with him and I told him, “I’ve never talked to you about my own music, but I am a musician and I play this harmonica and it would mean so much to me if I could  play a couple of songs with you while you’re there.”

And he said, “Yeah, sure, but nobody else.”

There is a picture in the book and it’s close to the moment where after he first heard me play because this was the first time he had ever heard me play and I never discussed my own musical life with him.

So after the first song was done, I looked over at him and said, “Don’t you tell me you aren’t a little bit surprised.”

You were teaching that course at Harvard, Raptors head coach Nick Nurse, who at the time was coaching in the G-League (formerly D-League) in Iowa and he was taking the class from a distance, and he wrote an ‘appreciation’ for you and this book. First of all, did Nick ace the course?

CS: Of course, the course was easy but he did an outstanding job. Having Nick write the appreciation in this book I knew that it would be a bridge to another community, and what he said was exactly what I was looking for (and) hoping for. Nick and I became such good friends because we share a kind of idea about friendship which can reach beyond national borders, intellectual disciplines and age.

I don’t want to give too much away but he wrote a bit about how on the final day of the course you arranged for a really special moment for him that led to a life-changing moment for him… musical. His story in your book somewhat circles around a piece he submitted for your class that was a recording of him performing. Do you remember anything about the performance piece?

I remember the arc of the piece and I remember that it was incredible and it was well recorded.

I mean he didn’t have to go to the studio. He just did it in his hotel room. And (by) it, I mean he did what he set out to do. And then it was just a real moment, which is how our friendship really took off in the last class of the semester and it was a great pleasure to have him as a student.

That was just the beginning because we are good friends to this day and now we both are between the covers of this one book.