B.B. King’s Still Singing the Blues : Pop music: He’s got Grammys, nightclubs bearing his name, an honorary doctorate and is a Kennedy Center honoree. Next up--a CD-ROM biography.

B.B. King was clearly perturbed by a comment he took to mean that his musical skills and tastes were limited to the blues with which he is so closely associated.

During a recent interview, the famed bluesman--who turned 70 on Sept. 16--bristled at a complimentary reference to the classic “Everyday I Have the Blues,” a 1950s track he recorded with Count Basie’s band--minus the Count--for Los Angeles-based Crown Records.

“Oh, you didn’t think that B.B. King could sing jazz?” he retorted, obviously angry. “You thought all I could sing was blues.”

Assuaged that the remark was not meant as a dig, King, who continues a series of Southern California dates tonight at the Strand in Redondo Beach, then told of such jazzmen as Miles Davis and Charlie Parker “sending a sword through my heart” with their music.

But ultimately he realized that jazz was not for him.

“I was finally convinced that I could play the blues better than anything else I could do musically,” he said. “I finally started to realize that I’m in my own backyard and can do pretty near all the things I feel. I started to see that I don’t have to go to jazz, country, soul to find things to play. I can listen to the people who play the kind of music I play, and still learn something.

“Actually, if I’d learned all the things that are in my own yard, I’d be pretty well equipped. But I haven’t learned them yet.”

*

Be that as it may, he has sold millions of recordings, has nine Grammys, blues clubs in Memphis and Universal City bearing his name and an honorary doctorate from Yale. And earlier this month, he received one of the 18th annual Kennedy Center Honors. (He’s featured in the Kennedy Center Honors special being telecast tonight at 9 on KCBS Channel 2.)

He’s also stepped square into the computer age with “On the Road With B.B. King,” an interactive CD-ROM biography that will be released next month.

That’s a long way from his childhood on a Mississippi cotton plantation where he didn’t even have a radio.

“Radio?! When I was a kid, only the well-off people had radios,” he said. “It was a long time before we got electricity at our home and when Dad got our first radio, I thought we were young Rockefellers.”

His ascent to blues stardom was a long one, built on decades of touring. And he stills travels--by bus, mainly--everywhere from Tennessee juke joints to the Royal Albert Hall, working 250 nights a year.

These days, he lives very comfortably in Las Vegas, with a Caddy and a Rolls in his garage. But he won’t cut back on his schedule.

“You’re only as good as people think you are,” he said. “Don’t think that if you have reached the top, people will love you from now on. You still have to stay out there.”

* B.B. King plays tonight 7:30 and 10:30, at the Strand, 1700 S. Pacific Coast Highway, Redondo Beach, tickets at $35 available for the late show, (310) 316-1700; Thursday at 7 and 9:30 p.m. at the Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3503 Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana, $32.50 tickets available for the late show. (714) 957-0600, and Friday, 8 and 10:30 p.m., at the Ventura Theatre, 26 S. Chestnut St., Ventura. $19.50, (805) 648-1888.