A performer in the Chicago blues scene, McKinley's major output was as a session musician on recordings made mostly in the 1950s.
[2][6] By the early 1950s, he was a regular performer at the 708 Club, where he variously topped the bill or played accompaniment in the first half of 1954 with the Ernest Cotton Trio.
In 1952, McKinley and Cotton backed Boyd on the latter's recording of "Five Long Years",[2] which reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart.
[7] McKinley also undertook recording sessions with several of Chicago's better-known blues musicians, including Curtis Jones.
[4] After leaving the music industry, he worked as a presser for a dry cleaning company in East Chicago, Indiana.