B.B. King's family lose bid for legal control

B.B. King’s family have lost a legal bid to wrestle control of his finances from manager Laverne Toney.

The 89-year-old blues icon’s business manager will retain power of attorney over his affairs after a Las Vegas judge ruled against the family’s request to revoke Toney’s guardianship.

The Associated Press reports that police and social services found no evidence of elder abuse and the judge said he couldn’t appoint King’s daughter Karen Williams as his guardian.

Williams claimed that more than $5 million in assets was at stake and that more than $1m had gone missing. She also claimed Toney would not allow visits from King’s friends – including Willie Nelson, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy.

Another of King’s daughters, Shirley King, tells the AP: “I’m not too sure things are right. But my dad would never want this. I’m crying about what people are doing. I’m afraid it might get ugly. This is disrespect to him.”

King cancelled a number of tour dates in 2014 due to dehydration and exhaustion. Earlier this month, he suffered a minor heart attack just weeks after being hospitalised for an illness related to his type 2 diabetes.

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.