At Bluesfest Bryon Bay they did the same thing with BB King, wheeled him out for a few songs, he could hardly play a note, so we all sadly waved him goodbye. It was not the way i wanted to remember him and I wished i hadn't seen him in that condition, it felt like exploitation.
To quote an article in the press 'I saw B B King again at the 2011 Byron Bay Bluesfest. He was the reason I had gone to Byron that year: to pay my respects to the man who made me want to play the guitar all those years ago. I also had wanted to be like him: a strong man, not brutal and physically powerful, but a man with a gentle yet unbreakable strength of spirit.
At Bluesfest, looking dangerously overweight, and appearing aged even beyond his 85 years, King was helped on after a twenty minute warmup by his band. For a further twenty minutes the King of The Blues struggled to sing and play his guitar. Despite flashes of the old strength and fire, B B was sadly off-game. The enlarged close-ups of his face on the screens both sides of the stage were meant to show his face in contortions of feeling and passion but they showed only frustration and eons of weariness around his eyes'
So true, its not right for Phil. Getting old really sucks.