Blues legend Bobby "Blue" Bland has died.
GRENADA, Miss. (AP) — Singer Bobby "Blue" Bland, who blended Southern blues and soul in songs such as "Turn on Your Love Light" and "Further on up the Road," has died.
He was 83.Bland's son Rodd said his father died about 5:30 p.m. Sunday at his Memphis home surrounded by relatives.
Since 2008, Bland had been using a wheelchair to limit his walking but would stand up at his performances, as he did in November when he sang at his induction into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.
His son said he died from complications from an ongoing illness.
Since 2008, Bland had been using a wheelchair to limit his walking but would stand up at his performances, as he did in November when he sang at his induction into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.
He was inducted in 1992 into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which hailed him as "second in stature only to B.B. King as a product of Memphis' Beale Street blues scene."
He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame.
Jay Sieleman with the Blues Foundation called Bland the greatest blues singer in the world.
“He was respected by so many people in the rock world and in the jazz world. He’s the Frank Sinatra of the blues. He’s respected for his voice and his phrasing. It’s going to be a huge loss to blues music,” Sieleman says.
Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.
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