From protégé to torchbearer, Joe Bonamassa honours his hero B.B. King with today’s release of B.B. King’s Blues Summit 100. The expansive 32-song tribute starring 40+ special guests was curated and produced by Joe Bonamassa in celebration of B.B. King’s 100th birthday. Released via Bonamassa’s KTBA Records, the album arrives as the culmination of a months-long rollout before revealing the full scope of King’s enduring influence.
The idea for the project emerged when Bonamassa realized that, despite King’s towering stature, no definitive musical tribute was taking shape around the centennial. “What we figured out was that nobody was really doing a tribute record to him,” Bonamassa explains. “It wasn’t really on anyone’s radar. So in January of 2025, we decided to start the B.B. King Blues Summit 100 album.”
At the center of the completed album is the long-anticipated recording of “The Thrill Is Gone,” featuring Eric Clapton and Chaka Khan. One of the most iconic recordings in the blues canon, the song represented both an opportunity and a responsibility. From the outset, Bonamassa and co-producer Josh Smith approached the track with a singular focus: honor the weight of the original by giving the artists the space, support, and trust to deliver it honestly.
“You can’t do a B.B. King tribute record and not do ‘The Thrill Is Gone,’” Bonamassa says. “It’s such an iconic song, and it’s a big ask.” When it came time to record it, there was no room for compromise. “For Eric Clapton and Chaka Khan doing ‘The Thrill Is Gone,’ we used real strings, real horns. The budget was whatever it cost, because you only get one chance to do this correctly. And I think we nailed it.”
That philosophy guided the project as a whole. With more than 50 artists contributing across 32 tracks, the production process could easily have become unwieldy. Instead, Bonamassa found the opposite to be true. “Everybody showed up and brought their A-game,” he says. “Dealing with 32 songs and all those artists, to have little to no resistance on anything, you go, ‘Okay, we’re doing this right.’”
Rather than assembling a traditional compilation, Bonamassa and Smith built the album from the ground up, recording core tracks first and then inviting artists to step into songs that carried personal meaning for them. “We weren’t making sound-alikes,” Bonamassa notes. “We played it in the spirit of B.B. King, but we did our own versions.”
Produced with the full support of the Estate of B.B. King and The B.B. King Music Company, Blues Summit 100 brings together an intergenerational group of artists spanning blues, rock, soul, and beyond. Across its 32 tracks, the album features performances from Buddy Guy, Gary Clark Jr., Keb’ Mo’, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, George Benson, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Marcus King, Warren Haynes, Dion, Larkin Poe, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Bobby Rush, Michael McDonald, Slash, Aloe Blacc, Trombone Shorty, and many others.
Bonamassa describes the line-up as intentional, not exhaustive. “We wanted a good cross-section,” he says. “Artists who are icons, and artists who maybe aren’t as well known yet.” The result, he believes, is something rare. “In my opinion, this is the greatest gathering of blues artists in the last 50 years for a bespoke album that started from scratch. And it came together because of B.B. King himself. No other person could have made this happen.”
The project was first announced on September 16, 2025 – B.B. King’s 100th birthday – with the release of its opening tracks and a commitment to a slow, intentional rollout. Over the following months, Blues Summit 100 unfolded in stages, allowing individual performances to stand on their own before revealing the album’s full arc. Along the way, the project drew national attention, including a CBS Mornings feature exploring Bonamassa’s early relationship with King and the deeper motivation behind the album, as well as recognition from Esquire, which named it among the Most Anticipated Albums of 2026.
At its core, Blues Summit 100 is rooted in Bonamassa’s own history with King, who first invited him on tour at age 12. That early mentorship shaped not only Bonamassa’s musical path, but his understanding of responsibility, generosity, and stewardship within the blues community. Those values guide the project throughout – from the way artists were approached to the care taken in honoring the material.
B.B. King’s Blues Summit 100 is available now on all digital platforms, as well as in physical formats including a double CD and a 180-gram triple LP vinyl edition. Proceeds from the project support the Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation, extending King’s legacy through education, preservation, and direct support for musicians.
As the album arrives in full, Bonamassa continues to bring its spirit to the stage throughout 2026, with select performances featuring artists connected to the project and tributes woven into his live shows. Together, the album and its ongoing life onstage reflect the central idea behind Blues Summit 100: that the blues endure through care, collaboration, and a shared commitment to doing the music right.
