John Lee Hooker August 22, [1] or [4] [5] β June 21, was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper , he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often incorporated other elements, including talking blues and early North Mississippi Hill country blues.
He developed his own driving-rhythm boogie style, distinct from the sβs piano-derived boogie-woogie. Hooker was ranked 35 in Rolling Stone ' s list of greatest guitarists. Several of his later albums, including The Healer , Mr. Hooker's date of birth is a subject of debate; the years , , , , and have all been suggested. Most official sources list , though at times Hooker stated he was born in Information found in the and censuses indicates that he was actually born in It is believed that he was born in Tutwiler, in Tallahatchie County, although some sources say his birthplace was near Clarksdale , in Coahoma County.
In the federal census, [13] William and Minnie were recorded as being 48 and 39 years old, respectively, which implies that Minnie was born about , not She was said to have been a "decade or so younger" than her husband Boogie Man , p. The Hooker children were homeschooled.
They were permitted to listen only to religious songs; the spirituals sung in church were their earliest exposure to music. In , their parents separated. The next year, their mother married William Moore, a blues singer, who provided John Lee with an introduction to the guitar and whom he would later credit for his distinctive playing style.
Moore was his first significant blues influence. He was a local blues guitarist who, in Shreveport, Louisiana , learned to play a droning, one-chord blues that was strikingly different from the Delta blues of the time. Another influence was Tony Hollins , who dated Hooker's sister Alice, helped teach Hooker to play, and gave him his first guitar. For the rest of his life, Hooker regarded Hollins as a formative influence on his style of playing and his career as a musician. At the age of 14, Hooker ran away from home, reportedly never seeing his mother or stepfather again.
