John Lee Hooker Jr. (born 1952) is an American

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

musician. He is the son of influential blues singer

John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – 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. Hooker often ...

(1917–2001). The younger Hooker's musical style is markedly modernized, featuring contemporary arrangements. Born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, United States, Hooker was performing live on local radio stations by the time he was eight years old, and toured with his father as a teenager. He struggled with drugs and alcohol for several years before reviving his career with his debut solo album, ''Blues with a Vengeance'', in 2004. The album was nominated for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

. A follow-up album, ''Cold as Ice'', was released in 2006. Hooker's third album, ''All Odds Against Me'', was released on August 19, 2008. Marking a clear departure from his father's style of music, the album was nominated for a Grammy Award that year in the Best Traditional Blues CD category. An animated video for the song, "Blues Ain't Nothin' But a Pimp," produced by Paris-based studio Callicore, featured Hooker as a street-hardened character known as "Bluesman." The video was a 2009 Webby Award honoree for special effects.Bluesman John Lee Hooker Jr. Continues to Garner Nods for 'All Odds Against Me' CD
" African American News, DogonVillage.com. Retrieved: 31 October 2013. Hooker's 2008 touring band included of George Lacson (bass), Jeff Horan (guitar), Mike Rogers (drums), and Gig Anderson (keyboards). Now an ordained minister, he is now reaching out to those in prisons (some of which were where he was an inmate during his drug abuse years) and is currently raising funds through his

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

webpage in order to finish his recording and eventual release of his first contemporary soul gospel album using almost the same blues and funk elements he incorporated in his blues releases and concerts. Rev. Hooker also gives a brief video bio of himself leading up to his conversion to Christianity on his Kickstarter page including a full bio. Before becoming a minister and still a blues artist, he was featured in an episode of '' The 700 Club'' where he detailed his drug addictions and imprisonments leading up to his conversion to Christianity and sobriety. That video clip can be found on YouTube.

Discography

Studio albums

* ''Blues With A Vengeance'' (Kent Music/Kent Entertainment Group, 2004) * ''Cold As Ice'' (Telarc Records, 2006) * ''All Odds Against Me'' (Steppin' Stone Records/CC Entertainment, 2008) * ''All Hooked Up'' (Steppin' Stone Records/CC Entertainment, 2012) * ''That's What The Blues Is All About'' ith Daddy's Cash(Sound And More Studios/Hermes Management, 2012) * ''Testify'' (Steppin' Stone Records/CC Entertainment, 2020)

Live albums

* ''Live In Istanbul, Turkey'' (Steppin' Stone Records/CC Entertainment, 2010)

References

External links

Official Site of John Lee Hooker Jr.John Lee Hooker Jr interview at Artist Connection Podcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hooker, John Lee Jr. American blues singers Living people 1952 births Musicians from Detroit