BB KING - MISSISSIPPI BUILDS BIRTHDAY MUSEUM FOR BB KING

The state of Mississippi is honouring blues icon BB KING's 80th birthday this September (05) by building a $10 million (GBP5.5 million) museum near his Indianola birthplace celebrating his life and career.

The birthday tribute will be a three-phase complex charting King's 60-year career, and the GRAMMY award-winning musician is expected to attend the groundbreaking of the initial phase in June (05).

King is thrilled with the spectacular gift, and is touched it is being built near his spiritual home.

He says, "The (Mississippi) Delta is where my roots are."

The museum will open to the public in 2007.