Watch B.B. King and Robert Downey Jr. Jam Out the 'The Star-Spangled Banner'
Long before Robert Downey Jr. was teamed up with the God of Thunder, he shared a pivotal scene with The King of Blues.
The guitar legend B.B. King — who died in his sleep at the age of 89 on Thursday night — didn’t make a lot of appearances in scripted movies or TV shows during is nearly 70 years in the spotlight. But he did find time to make a cameo in was the 1993 romantic comedy Heart and Souls, in which a young Downey Jr. — fresh off his Oscar-nominated performance in Chaplin — plays a man who must help four lost souls complete their unfinished business on earth before ascending to heaven.
One of the restless ghosts, played by Charles Grodin, has to sing in front of a public audience, forcing Downey Jr. — his body temporarily inhabited by Grodin’s ghost — to squeak out “The Star-Spangled Banner” in front of a large crowd. Thankfully, Downey gets some help from the King and his trusty guitar, Lucille (you can watch the scene above).
King also appeared in films such as Blues Brothers 2000, and provided songs for countless others. And after working with Downey Jr., the blues maestro assisted another plucky, self-assured baby boomer in 1998, when he teamed with Bono and U2 for the song “When Love Comes to Town” — a moment that was captured in the band’s doc Rattle and Hum:
