When Australian musician Nathan Cavaleri learned BB King had passed away at the age of 89, his memories of being a 14-year-old playing onstage with the "King of Blues" came flooding back.

As a teenager Cavaleri went on a three-week tour across the United States with the legendary blues musician.

"I thought it was going to be like a support act but ... he had me up in the middle of his set playing two or three songs with him," he said.

To be clear, Cavaleri was not just any starry-eyed kid. He was a "child prodigy".

In the early 90s when he was just a boy, his amazing guitar skills had caught the attention of people around the world.

He signed to Michael Jackson's record label MJJ, played onstage with some of the world's best guitarists and had toured the United States in his own right.

But for Cavaleri the tour with BB King was different.

"It sounds bizarre but it happened a little later in my life. It happened at an age where I could really appreciate him and the situation," he said.

"The BB King tour happened when I was 14 and I really did understand how privileged I was and I had the ability to learn from him and his shows."

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"Every time we'd play those songs I'd learn something different, be it, interaction with the crowd or interaction with him," he said.

It was not just BB King's guitar playing that Cavaleri soaked up like a sponge.

BB King's onstage presence was unlike anything the teenager had ever seen.

"He was the first player I'd seen who treated it like a big energetic show. Almost a bit Las Vegas.

"He'd have the crowd up pumping, and he'd joke with the crowd."

Along with the "monstrous" onstage performances, Cavaleri remembers BB King's softer, off-stage persona just as fondly.

"He was like your awesome grandfather, filled with wisdom and he was really, really cruisy," he said.

During one of their first encounters BB King gave Cavaleri some advice that stuck with him for the rest of his life.

"He said to me 'be you'.

"That's what I always have in the back of my head to this day after all these years when I'm about to go on stage or a decision to do with my music, I just think of that.

"Be you, if it's not me then I'm not doing it."

That unscripted moment ended up as a scene in fast food commercial that the pair filmed together in 1995.

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That was 20 years ago. The pair had fallen out of touch, but their time together left a lasting impression on Cavaleri.

He said he was still processing the news of BB King's death.

"We've all had the privilege to listen to his amazing music. I'm so lucky to be involved with him in the way that I was and influenced directly by him both as a person and a showman," he said.

Cavaleri said it made him happy to think BB King was playing shows all the way to the very end.