Virtuoso took blues to a universal audience

come from. King was perfectly placed to capitalise, but the newfound interest came as a shock to him. He recalled playing the Fillmore West, San Francisco’s premier rock venue, for the first time in 1967: ‘‘It seemed to be 98 per cent white so I thought maybe we had gone to the wrong place. I was kind of frightened because I was considering how I would go over, whether the people would like me.’’

He need not have worried. He received a rapturous ovation. Two years later he toured with the Rolling Stones and he went on to perform with numerous rock artists, from U2 and Clapton to Van Morrison and Elton John.

He was married twice, to Martha Lee Denton from 1946 to 1952 and to Sue Carol Hall from 1958 to 1966. Both marriages were childless and ended in divorce. The dissolution of his second marriage inspired one of his biggest hits, The Thrill Is Gone.

He was unapologetic about his failed marriages and relationships. ‘‘About 15 times, a lady has said, ‘It’s either me or Lucille [his guitar]’. That’s why I’ve had 15 children by 15 women.’’

Yet he supported all of his children, 11 of whom survive him. Born Riley King into a family of sharecroppers on a plantation near the small town of Itta Bena, Mississippi in 1925, his parents separated when he was a child, and he was partly raised by his maternal grandmother. He bought his first guitar around the age of 12. He made his recording debut in 1949 and his commercial breakthrough came in 1951 when he topped the ‘‘race’’ chart with a version of Lowell Fulson’s Three O’Clock Blues.

By the 1970s, King was acknowledged as one of the alltime great guitar virtuosi.

When Love Comes Around, a duet with U2, introduced King to yet another generation in 1989. A duets album with Eric Clapton released in the 2000s also won glowing reviews and a Grammy award.

In a business not always noted for such qualities, he was a famously kindly and courteous man.