Sterling Billingsley is a blues musician who lives in Helena, Arkansas. He learned to play on his little sister's plastic guitar while listening to a trunk full of blues records. In 2008 Billingsley became the music chairman for the King Biscuit Blues Festival and took on the responsibility of booking bands for the festival. Billingsley draws on his passion for "real-deal blues" to choose performers for the festival. He describes the challenges of booking acts for King Biscuit as fewer and fewer of the original blues greats are still performing. Billngsley says, “In order for the blues to survive, it has to evolve.”
Still frame from Pryor Center video interview with Sterling Billingsley at Bubba's Blues Corner; Helena, Arkansas, 2017
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
