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Blues Legend John Lee Hooker Dies
06/21/2001 8:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Neal Weiss
(6/21/01, 8 p.m. ET) -- Blues legend and Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame member John Lee Hooker, known for songs like "Boom Boom," "I'm In The Mood," and "Crawlin' Kingsnake," died Thursday (June 21) of natural causes, according to reports. He was 80.
With a canon of more than 100 albums, the Mississippi Delta musician's impact spans several generations. Those influenced by Hooker include Van Morrison, the Rolling Stones, John Mayall, the Yardbirds, Bonnie Raitt, ZZ Top, and George Thorogood.
"Beyond his ability to lock into a hypnotic boogie groove, Hooker is renowned for the gruff emotionality of his voice and the stark intensity of his guitar playing," reads his biography for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, to which Hooker was inducted in 1991.
Hooker, born August 22, 1920, began his career with the 1948 single, "Boogie Chillen." He saw several periods of increased fame and remained vital into the last decade. In 1990, he earned a Grammy Award for the platinum-selling album, The Healer, which featured duets with Carlos Santana, Robert Cray, and Raitt.
Others that have collaborated with Hooker throughout the years include Van Morrison, Los Lobos, the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards, Albert Collins, and Canned Heat.
His last studio album was 1997's Don't Look Back.
"All these years, I ain't done nothin' different,'' Hooker told the Times Of London during his resurgence in the '90s. "I been doing the same things as in my younger days, when I was coming up, and now here I am, an old man, up there in the charts. And I say, well, what happened? Have they just thought up the real John Lee Hooker, is that it? And I think, well, I won't tell nobody else! I can't help but wonder what happened.''
-- Neal Weiss, Los Angeles
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