John Lee Hooker

John Lee Hooker is known as the King of Boogie to Blues fans across the globe, who’s musical career spanned over half a century and with each passing decade managed to gain a new generation of fans with his simplistic but prolific lyrics and unforgettable tunes. 

He was born in 1917 in Mississippi U.S.A. to a family of sharecroppers and who was one of eleven children, none of whom actually went to school because they were taught at home. Hookers father died when he was around six years old and after his mother had remarried, he was taught to play the guitar by his stepfather. By the 1940’s, John Lee Hooker had moved up north to Detroit, where he worked numerous jobs, one of which was working as a Janitor for the world famous Ford Car manufacturing company during the day and by night would perform Blues songs at house parties and clubs. With the money he had earned from his job, Hooker bought his first electric guitar, leaving behind his acoustic one.

By the 1940’s, John Lee Hooker had moved up north to Detroit, where he worked numerous jobs, one of which was working as a Janitor for the world famous Ford Car manufacturing company during the day and by night would perform Blues songs at house parties and clubs. With the money he had earned from his job, Hooker bought his first electric guitar, leaving behind his acoustic one.

His recording career really began in 1948 when he released songs under the Modern Records label which included the million sellers “Boogie Chillen” and other hits such as “I’m in the Mood”, “Hobo Blues” and “Dimples”, crafting his distinctive style of Blues music.

By the sixties he had gained an almost fanatical following in U.K. with the Blues Invasion of Britain, especially after the release of his now signature tune “Boom, Boom” in 1962 on the Vee-Jay label and with admirers such as The Rolling Stones, The Animals and Manfred Mann, all of whom were inspired by Hookers music and were all part of the British Music Invasion to the states and helped re-introduced America to the sounds of John Lee Hooker.

During the seventies, “The Hook” (as he was known by many) was working mainly from California, where he performed on records with rock artists such as on the hit album “Hooker ‘n’ Heat” which was a collaboration with the rock group Canned Heat. In 1980 he was introduced to a younger audience when the appeared and performed in the hit film “The Blues Brothers” which won him a whole new set of fans.

By then well into his seventies, during the late eighties and throughout the nineties, Hooker continued to tour and perform and was being recognised by the music industry for his contributions to popular music with Grammy Award winning albums as well as a Lifetime Achievement Grammy and his music being used on adverts and with “Boom, Boom” re-entering the charts yet again. The writer of over 100 songs, John Lee Hooker didn’t allow old age to slow him down and performed right up until the end when the week before he died in 2001, he gave his last performance in front of a packed crowd in California. His star is on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and his music is still being used for adverts, being sampled by other artists and continues to be listened to and enjoyed by millions of his fans both young and old.