King was reared in the Mississippi delta, and gospel music in church was the earliest influence on his singing. To his own impassioned vocal calls, King played lyrical single-string guitar responses with a distinctive vibrato; his guitar style was influenced by T-Bone Walker (Walker, T-Bone), by delta blues players (including his cousin Bukka White), and by such jazz guitarists as Django Reinhardt (Reinhardt, Django) and Charlie Christian (Christian, Charlie). He worked for a time as a disk jockey in Memphis, Tennessee (notably at station ), where he acquired the name B.B. (for Blues Boy) King. In 1951 he made a hit record of "Three O'Clock Blues," which led to virtually continuous tours of clubs and theatres throughout the country. He often played 300 or more one-night stands a year with his 13-piece band. A long succession of hits, including "Every Day I Have the Blues," "Sweet Sixteen," and "The Thrill Is Gone," enhanced his popularity. By the late 1960s rock (rock and roll) guitarists acknowledged his influence and priority; they introduced King and his guitar, Lucille, to a broader white public, who until then had heard blues chiefly in derivative versions. King's autobiography, Blues All Around Me, written with David Ritz, was published in 1996.