B.B. King Waxes Poetic About Obama at Grammy Noms

Many musicians have weighed in on the significance of Barack Obama's historic presidential election win. But few offer as much perspective or eloquence as the legendary B.B. King, a man, who at 83, lived through the civil rights struggle. Backstage at the 2009 Grammy nominations on Wednesday night, King told Spinner what the victory meant to him.

"I never thought I would live long enough to see a black president in my lifetime," King said. "But I believed all of my life that one day there would be someone like Dr. King once said, [and] people would be thought of and loved and appreciated for what they did and not their color. And that to me makes me very happy to think of that.

"And I'd like to think America has grown up, not enough yet, but has grown up," he continued. "I'm so proud of this country, proud to be an American, because I think today people have done so much to make people feel like people. I'm very happy, very proud of it."

King then talked about his feelings watching the returns on November 4. "The night that Obama gained the count for becoming President-Elect, I was home [with] my children," he recalls. "And they looked at me and said, 'Are you happy?' I said, 'Yes, but I'm sad as well.' Now that may sound a little weird to you, but I'm sad because so many people, even of different races, gave their lives for him to be what he is today. So many had to do that, and today, we're blessed. We think that one black person can be as good as all the white presidents. That's what I think."

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