John Lee HOOKER

John Lee Hooker is an American blues guitarist and singer. He was born in Mississippi in 1917. The youngest of 10 children, his parents gave them a very strict education. The children were taught at home and were forbidden to listen to non-religious music. Later, his mother's new partner, a blues guitarist, taught him his first basics. At the age of 15, he ran away from home and never saw his parents again. In the 1930s, the young runaway found himself in Memphis and then in Detroit, living off odd jobs in factories. Performing in a few clubs and bars in the area, he quickly acquired a small reputation and then traded his acoustic guitar for an electric guitar.

In 1948, Hooker began recording and released his first single Boogie Chillen. Although illiterate, he wrote songs very prolifically and because of the obligations of his contract, he signed them under different pseudonyms. He was found in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers alongside John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. The character of John Black is also inspired by Hooker's look. In 1989, he collaborated with Carlos Santana and Bonnie Raitt on The Healer. An album for which they won a Grammy. John Lee Hooker recorded more than a hundred albums and lived the last years of his life in San Francisco where he opened a nightclub "John Lee Hooker's Boom Boom Room" in 1997. In 2000, the Recording Academy awarded him a lifetime achievement award. He died on June 21, 2001.

Stéphane Deschamps dedicated a book to him: Blues Power