An inspiration to generations of musicians, legendary bluesman John Lee Hooker (1917–2001) was born on this day in Clarksdale, Mississippi, the son of a sharecropping Baptist minister. His flame never flickered—it burned low and steady, like a soul-deep groove you feel before you even hear it.

“When I was a kid comin' up, I would pretend I was goin' to school and hide out in the woods with my old guitar,” he recalled.

Nicknamed the “King of Boogie” and “Mr. Lucky,” Hooker made famous his raw, rhythmic blues with hits like Boom Boom and In the Mood. “I love the blues,” he said. “I was born with the blues… Nothing else I want to do.”

In 1948, his debut single Boogie Chillen sold over a million copies. “You cannot get what I got out of a book,” he explained. “You got to have talent.”

With a voice like gravel and fire, and a style all his own, Hooker helped bring the blues into the mainstream. “The blues is the only music,” he said. “Everybody in the world has the blues.”

Over nearly 70 years, Hooker recorded more than 100 albums and influenced icons from Bruce Springsteen to Keith Richards. “People say I’m a genius,” he said humbly. “But I don’t know about that.”

His sound was unmistakable, his presence electric. John Lee Hooker carried the blues in his bones—but his *spirit* was tender, generous, and true. He sang of heartbreak, yes, but also of connection, of dignity, of treating each soul with care. A man of rhythm and heart, he lived what he played: a gospel of love in a minor key.