Time & Perspective Quote by Ben E. King

There’s a kind of quiet relief embedded in Ben E. King’s run-on gratitude: the music business may be messy, but he got in at the right moment, with the right people, and that timing still feels like a gift. He frames it carefully - “If there’s anything about the business that I love” - as if love for the industry itself requires a disclaimer. That little hedge carries subtext: he’s seen the contracts, the churn, the way a “business” can chew up artists. What he chooses to cherish isn’t the machinery; it’s the human constellation he landed in.

King’s emphasis on “that time” matters. He came up when soul and early R&B were professionalizing fast, when Black artists were pushing into the mainstream while still fighting for credit, control, and fair pay. Saying his career “started at that time” is a recognition that eras aren’t neutral - they determine who gets heard, who gets protected, who gets exploited, and which sounds become history instead of footnotes.

Then he pivots to community: “met some of the greatest entertainers.” It’s not flexing; it’s placing himself inside a lineage. The final clause, “and some are still here,” lands like a soft memorial. King is measuring success less by charts than by survival and continuity. For a musician whose work trades in longing and endurance, the line reads like an artist’s real trophy: not fame, but having shared the room with greatness and watching some of it outlast the spotlight.