Custom Flying Vs, strange open tunings and massive bends: how Albert King created his own strain of the blues – and inspired Hendrix, Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan

Albert King performs onstage at the Montreux Jazz Festival

This story originally appeared in the March/April 2013 issue of Guitar Aficionado magazine.

Albert King was a giant among bluesmen, and not only for his immense talents on the guitar. A 250-pound giant of considerable bulk, King stood between six-four and six-seven and made any guitar he held in his massive hands look like a child’s plaything.