In May 1993, on my flight from Akron, Ohio to Chicago, I recognised BB King in the lounge. I was sure he would be in 1st class and I would not be able to chat with him as I was on Business Class so I went up to him and told him "BB King where I come from, Malaysia, we have a guy who plays like you….he is PP King….Paul Ponnudorai. He gave a hearty guffaw…..he would not if he had heard our virtuoso plucking his stuff.
I first heard Paul when he teamed up with his brother Sam on our RTM talent show in the seventies. The rest, as they say is history. We had two things in common when we met up again in the late 80s mostly in pubs in those crazy, unhazy days. We drank our Anchor straight from the bottle which the owner of Castel Restaurant told me was rude. WTF! Paul was a voracious reader and every book I mentioned he has read. But there were books he read that I didn’t. He was many up on me and for every book that I did not read and he had I had to buy him a drink.
We met again in between his stints in Singapore and finally last year when he did a gig at Backyard to raise funds for Burmese refugee kids in KL.
Yesterday morning enroute from Taiping to Penang, Anil Netto who Terence and I will stay with broke the news of Paul’s passing.
Farewell P P King!
OTHER TRIBUTES
and don't fail to catch him do his Black Magic Woman.....obviously a dedication to his wife.
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