Duke Tumatoe, born William “Bill" Severen Fiorio in 1947,[1] is an American blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter.

King, Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy, John Fogerty and George Thorogood.

[2] He was an early member of REO Speedwagon, a group that later became an arena-rock success.

He followed a rigorous tour schedule for most of his career, typically playing more than 200 dates per year.

As a teen, he often visited the market at Maxwell Street to hear live blues.

[2] In 1965, Tumatoe enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and founded the short-lived band Lothar and the Hand People, named by classmate Bill Geist.

[3] In 1967, while living in Champaign, Illinois, Tumatoe joined REO Speedwagon in their nascent stages, replacing Bob Crownover, alongside founding members Neal Doughty and Alan Gratzer.

[4] The All-Star Frogs featured keyboardist James Mitchell Hill, whose playing has been compared to Booker T.

In 1987, John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival undertook his own ethnomusicologist mission by traveling through the South and Midwestern United States to discover regional acts that could not be heard on radio.

[6] In Mishawaka, Indiana, Fogerty heard a radio advertisement for Duke Tumatoe.

Fogerty and engineer Alan Johnson spent three months mixing the record.

In 1985, Tumatoe was looking for a way to promote a local blues club called Uncle Slugs, and Griswold suggested he write a song about the city's new NFL team, the Indianapolis Colts, which had formerly been the Baltimore Colts.

The result was the tongue-in-cheek “Lord Help Our Colts,” a catchy twelve-bar blues jingle with a static chorus and verses that could easily be updated to recap each game.

“I, of course, wrote the song in a form that I thought if necessary, I could easily update, which turned out to be a real good thing, a smart move,” says Tumatoe.

On a few different occasions, Tumatoe barely avoided physical altercations initiated by drunken quarterbacks or angry coaches.

"[2][10] Tumatoe is a self-taught guitarist who learned to play by watching Chicago’s blues legends.

King played through Jimi Hendrix (with a touch of Andy Gill).”[5] Tumatoe’s songs are noted for their humor, something he explains as, "There are two elements of the blues.