John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912[1] or 1917[4][5] – June 21, 2001) 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 that he developed in Detroit.

She was said to have been a "decade or so younger" than her husband,[15] which gives additional credibility to this census record as evidence of Hooker's origins.

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).

For the rest of his life, Hooker regarded Hollins as a formative influence on his style of playing and his career as a musician.

Among the songs that Hollins reputedly taught Hooker were versions of "Crawlin' King Snake" and "Catfish Blues".

[18] In the mid-1930s, he lived in Memphis, Tennessee, where he performed on Beale Street, at the New Daisy Theatre and occasionally at house parties.

[12] He worked in factories in various cities during World War II, eventually getting a job with the Ford Motor Company in Detroit in 1943.

He frequented the blues clubs and bars on Hastings Street, the heart of the black entertainment district, on Detroit's east side.

[25] Hooker rarely played with a standard beat, opting instead to adjust the tempo to fit the needs of the song.

As a result, Besman recorded Hooker playing guitar, singing, and stomping on a wooden pallet in time with the music.

Beginning in 1962, Hooker gained greater exposure when he toured Europe in the annual American Folk Blues Festival.

[41] "Boogie Chillen" is also included in the Recording Industry Association of America's list of the "Songs of the Century".