B.B. King joins 'Friends' on new album

NEW YORK, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- B.B. King confesses the search for new audiences lies behind playing with the artists who join him on his new album, "B.B. King & Friends -- 80."

"These people are superstars, man," King says of a corps that includes Eric Clapton, Elton John, John Mayer and Gloria Estefan. "A lot of people know them that don't know B.B. King. So if I could get some of these people to play with me, then the people that know them and don't know me might introduce me."

Also joining King on "80" are Sheryl Crow, the Who's Roger Daltrey, the Eagles' Glenn Frey, former Dire Straits leader Mark Knopfler, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, Daryl Hall, and longtime King pal Bobby "Blue" Bland.

King turns 80 Sept. That same day he'll publish a memoir, "Treasures."