INDIANOLA, Miss., Sept. 16 (UPI) -- The new $15 million B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola, Miss., opened just in time for the music icon's 83rd birthday Tuesday.

"My goodness," USA Today quoted King as saying when he saw his name on the front of the museum at its opening in his hometown last weekend. "I didn't go to school long enough to be able to tell you how I feel. But I have heard that heaven is beautiful. If heaven is more beautiful than the way I feel today, I'm ready to go tomorrow."

The museum, which features King's home studio, including his instruments and recording equipment, is located in a 20,000-square-foot brick building where King ginned cotton as a

youth, the newspaper said.

"It puts my feet back on the ground where they should be -- the last place I worked around here," King said.

"B.B. gave us the key to his house (in Las Vegas) and basically told us to take what we wanted," museum Executive Director Connie Gibbons told USA Today, recalling how King returned home to find Post-it notes stuck on items all over his home that the museum wanted to put on display.

"We even stuck one on him," Gibbons said with a laugh.

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