John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001) was a highly influential American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born in Mississippi, the son of a sharecropper and Baptist preacher, he developed his own unique style of what was originally country blues.  This talking blues style became his trademark and learned from his stepfather and blues singer, William Moore.

At the age of 15, Hooker ran away from home and lived in Memphis until moving north to Detroit working at the Ford Motor Company.  His recording career started in 1948 with "Boogie Chillen" his first hit single.  Despite being illiterate, he was a prolific lyricist.  He often recorded under other names such as John Lee Booker, Johnny Lee, John Lee, John Lee Cooker, Texas Slim, Delta John Birmingham Sam, and his Magic Guitar, Johnny Williams, or The Boogie Man.

He appeared and sang in the 1980 movie, The Blues Brothers.  Hooker recorded over 100 blues albums and performed with an endless list of blues stars and heroes.  He maintained a solo career, but as he got older, he added more and more people to his band. Though Hooker lived in Detroit during most of his career, he is not associated with the Chicago-style blues prevalent in large northern cities, as much as he is with the southern rural blues styles, known as delta blues. country blues. folk blues, or front porch blues.  He lived the last years of his life in Long Beach, California.  He died in his sleep on June 21 at the age of 83, just two months before his 84th birthday.

Among his many awards, Hooker has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in 1991 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2000, Hooker was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

(John Lee Hooker at Penn's Landing, Philadelphia 1993)