August 17, 1920 - Present
Birthplace: Clarksdale, Mississippi

John Lee Hooker is one of the giants of post-World War II blues,
on a par with Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf,
Lightnin' Hopkins, and even Jethro T. Nuraw. Known as the father
of the boogie, an incessant one-chord exercise in blues intensity
and undying rhythm, Hooker's sound is also a study in deep blues.
From his guitar come shadowy tones, open tunings, feverish note
clusters, and that familiar chugging rhythm that has been his blues
signature-all of which hark back to the music' s formative years.

Hooker also owns one of the most distinctive voices in blues. It
reaches down deep and comes together slowly and with careful
consideration. It' s soaked with sexuality, spiced with arrogance,
and contains layers of weathered, bassy textures. Hear John Lee
Hooker once and both his voice and his guitar are thereafter
unmistakable and unforgettable.

Unlike the other major blues figures of the late 1940s and 1950s
who hailed from Chicago, Texas, or Memphis, Hooker made his
mark in Detroit and became the Motor City's biggest blues star.
He cut nearly as many recordings as Lightnin' Hopkins the artist
many blues historians believe to be the most recorded in the
music's history. Because Hooker recorded under a number of
pseudonyms to escape contractual obligations, his recording
catalog is a confusing maze of albums and singles.

Hooker not only was popular with black blues audiences, but in
the early '60s he influenced an entire generation of British
blues-rockers. Groups such as the Animals (the band had a
major hit in 1964 with Hooker's "Boom Boom"), the Rolling
Stones, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, and early Fleetwood
Mac all borrowed extensively from Hooker. In the U.S., Canned
Heat built much of its late-'60s repertoire from Hooker's boogie
rhythms. More recently, blues- rockers such as Johnny Winter and
George Thorogood have reinterpreted the Hooker boogie, while
Bruce Springsteen made "Boom Boom" one of his concert
highpoints in the late '80s.

Hooker was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and was taught the
basics of blues guitar by his stepfather, Will Moore. As a child,
Hooker learned to sing in church, and he professed an interest in
religious music, particularly gospel, during adolescence.
Sometime around age fifteen, Hooker left the Delta and went to
Memphis, where he worked as an usher in a Beale Street theater
and played his guitar on street corners for spare change. He
returned to Mississippi for a short while but left again, this time for
Cincinnati, where he sang in such gospel groups as the Fairfield
Four and the Big Six.

Hooker moved to Detroit in 1943, hoping to cash in on
assembly-line work there during the height of World War II. He
wound up a janitor in an automotive plant and played clubs and
house parties in Detroit's black neighborhoods. His recording
career began in 1948 when he recorded his seminal blues
number, "Boogie Chillen." Released on the Modern label, the
song introduced Hooker's penchant for hypnotic, one-chord guitar
ramblings and his deep, chilling vocals. "Boogie Chillen" was a
throwback to prewar country blues and the antithesis of the slick
rhythm & blues that filled out the charts in the years immediately
following World War II. Incredibly, "Boogie Chillen" made it all the
way to number 1 on the R&B charts in early 1949 and today is
considered one of the all-time classic songs in the blues
treasury.

Hooker recorded extensively between 1949 and 1952. His blues
appeared on a variety of labels under a variety of pseudonyms,
including Birmingham Sam, Delta John, Texas Slim, Johnny Lee,
John Williams, Boogie Man, and John Lee Booker. Modern
released Hooker's classic "Crawlin' Kingsnake" in 1949 and
his biggest hit, "I'm in the Mood," in 1951, but other
Hooker material surfaced on the Regal, Gone, Staff, and
Sensation labels. Despite the name deception, he never changed
his sound. Always his guitar work was dark and Delta-laced and
deceptively simple in structure Hooker's guitar riffs were also
supported by the rhythmic stomping of his feet, which gave many
of his songs an increased intensity.

In 1971, Jim Morrison of the Doors recorded a version of
Hooker's"Crawlin' King Snake"

Hooker recorded for Chess from 1952 to about 1954; during this
time he also toured with Muddy Waters and performed on his
own. As in the past, he continued to record for other labels,
despite his Chess connection. Hooker songs appeared on the
Gotham, Savoy, and Specialty labels, among others. But the label
Hooker was most associated with in the late '50s and early '60s
was Vee-Jay Records. Hooker stayed with the label until 1964.
Two of Hooker's best-known hits from this period, "Dimples"
(1956) and "Boom Boom" (1962) had a profound effect on the
British blues scene. Oddly, his influence abroad in the early '60s
was stronger than it was in the U.S. where he had returned to a
solo acoustic blues style in order to take advantage of the growing
folk-blues revival going on in cities like New York and San
Francisco and on many college campuses.

Hooker continued to record and perform extensively throughout
the 1960s; he was at home in either an acoustic or electric format.
He toured England and continental Europe in 1962, and
performed at the Newport Folk Festival in 1960 and 1963 and at
the Newport Jazz Festival in 1964. He returned to England and tile
Continent every year from 1964 to 1969, while back home in the
States he played hip rock clubs like The Scene and Electric
Circus in New York as more and more rock fans picked up on his
blues.

Hooker left Detroit and moved to Oakland in 1970; that same year
he cut the album Hooker 'n' Heat with blues-rock group Canned
Heat and further solidified his standing with rock audiences.
Hooker also continued to make his own records. From the early
'70s came Endless Boogie, Never Get Out of These Blues Alive,
and Free Beer and Chicken, to name just some of them. Much of
the material on these albums was recycled songs or ideas and
boogie rhythms that did little else except keep stores stocked with
new John Lee Hooker vinyl.

By the late 1970s, Hooker seemed destined to fade into the blues
woodwork. His sound had gone stale and interest in the blues
was not yet what it would be later in the 1980s. But Hooker hung
on, thanks to the continuous reissue of previously recorded
material by labels such as Charly, GNP Crescendo, Chameleon,
and Chess. In 1980 Hooker was inducted into the Blues
Foundation's Hall of Fame.

Hooker's career continued to sag until 1989 when the Chameleon
label released The Healer, an album of newly recorded material
produced by Hooker's former guitarist Roy Rogers. The Healer
included a guest appearance by longtime Hooker fan Bonnie
Raitt, plus other cameos from Carlos Santana, Robert Cray,
George Thorogood, and others. To the surprise of Hooker and
everyone else, The Healer not only sold better than any other
Hooker album had and earned many enthusiastic reviews, but it
also won a Grammy Award for best blues recording. Suddenly
Hooker was hot. In early 1990 he was inducted into the Rock &
Roll Hall of Fame. Later that year he was honored at a special
tribute concert in New York' s Madison Square Garden that
featured Raitt, Joe Cocker, Huey Lewis, Ry Cooder, Bo Diddley,
Mick Fleetwood, Gregg Allman, Al Kooper, Johnny Winter, Willie
Dixon, Albert Collins, and others.

Before year's end, Hooker signed with Point Blank/Charisma
Records, and for an encore he and Rogers cut Mr. Lucky, which,
like its predecessor, was stocked with big-name guests (Collins,
Cooder, Cray, Winter, Santana, Van Morrison, John Hammond,
Jr., Keith Richards, and others). It, too, registered impressive
sales and reviews, although on most tracks Hooker took a
backseat to his admirers or else wasn't able to work up enough
steam to get his husky vocals out in front of all the layers of
instrumentation.

Hooker currently lives outside of Los Angeles. He continues to
record and tour, and, with B.B. King, shares the honor of being
elder statesman of the blues.