John Lee Hooker is one of the original innovators and kings of African American popular music, commonly called the blues. He was born on August 22, 1917, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, to a Baptist minister. Later he became the stepson of William Moore, a guitarist. At the age of 14, he started singing with spiritual groups. Hooker learned his style of guitar playing from his stepfather.(Stratyner 112) He also learned to play from his colleagues, James Smith and Coot Harris. His style of guitar playing is known as two-finger picking.(Stratyner 112) His two-finger picking style is known as Deltalick

Hooker introduced a style to which every white blues band since 1962 must trace at least half their roots.(Stratyner 112). His guitar talks in snaky lines, in sitar quivers, in sudden shocks, and in hilly phrases. His songs are a monologue that retells a story of emotional pain that requires a unique verbal pattern. Hooker was the first great recorded practioner of the electric blues-rock-funk and stream of consciousness boogie. Hooker likes to keep things simple. He rarely strays from a couple of cords and delivers his autobiographical blues with growing menace and much vibrato. He's a completely closed-in performer who accents the rhythmic drive of his performance, according to Quallette, by "chopping off the ends of his rhythmic lines."

When Hooker cut his first single, a stomping guitar boogie called, "Boogie Chillen" in 1948, the Mississippi native was working as a janitor in a Detroit steel mill. The song became a hit, and Hooker quit his job to play full-time the hypnotic one chord country blues--sung in his preternatural growl--that he had learned from his stepfather. (Shea 18)

In 1962, Hooker brought out another smashing hit, entitled Boom Boom, which is, according to Puterbaugh, "a rough uncut Hooker." Hooker also has as an album on the market entitled Boom Boom. Hooker released this album in 1993.

In the late 70's, Hooker appeared in the hit movie Blues Brothers. In the movie Hooker sang the smashing hit Boom Boom. Hooker has made many appearances in big places. In 1960, he performed at the Newport Folk Festival. In 1973, he was in a concert at the Lincoln Center. Hooker still also plays in many average clubs, but he has had the chance to work with numerous well-known people. To name a few, he's worked with Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, Albert King, Peg Leg Sam, Ginger Baker, and Chris Wood. He's worked with a few rock groups such as the Rolling Stones and Animals.

Hooker, who is now 83 years old, has now made his home in Long Beach, California. His voice has deepened into a "throaty, lubricious vehicle for conveying pain, trouble desire, and wicked irony " His guitar playing is "tangled and gnarly, the sound of a man groping for an honest expression of deep, disturbing feelings." (Peterbaugh 81). Until recently he sometimes grabbed the mike to perform when he's just at the club having a night out (Drozdowski 63). He is, however, in poor health now and has stopped making public appearances.

Nobody sound like John Lee Hooker. Mississippi's John Lee Hooker is different. He is the king of the blues.

Editor's Note: John Lee Hooker, the great bluesmen, passed away in his sleepon June 21, 2001, at his home in the San Francisco Bay area at the age of 83. Hooker influenced countless generations of musicians and inspired music fans around the world during his sixty-year career.

From Hooker's Official Web Site: John Lee Hooker piled up more milestones in each of his final years than most artists compile in a lifetime. In February of 2000 John Lee received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Sciences (The Grammys). In October of 1999 "Boogie Man: John Lee Hooker In The American 20th Century," a biography penned by noted author Charles Shaar Murray, was released in England. Earlier that year Hooker was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and presented by Bonnie Raitt and Eric Clapton. Fall of 2000 saw the much anticipated release of the book in the United States and other parts of the world. 1999 was John Lee Hooker's 50th year as a recording artist, and to celebrate, he released THE BEST OF FRIENDS on Virgin/Pointblank, a compilation album representing some of his best songs from the past ten years. The album features performances with John Lee and his friends including Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt, Carlos Santana, Robert Cray, Ben Harper, Los Lobos, Charlie Musselwhite, Jimmie Vaughan and more. In last years, John Lee was inducted into Los Angeles' Rock Walk, the Bammies Walk of Fame in San Francisco, and he now has his own star on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk Of Fame. In October of 1998 he was honored with a tribute concert by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The concert featured some of his best friends including Eddie Kirkland, Charlie Musselwhite, Elvin Bishop and Johnnie Johnson. Film from that show was aired as part of a documentary on John Lee due for worldwide release the following year. In 1997, John Lee received two Grammy Awards for his latest studio release, DON'T LOOK BACK. The first Grammy was for Best Traditional Blues Album and the second for his duet with Van Morrison beating out such notable artists as Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Stevie Wonder, Babyface, and Bryan Adams in the Best Pop Collaboration category.