Name John Hooker, Role Musician | Parents John Lee Hooker | |
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Albums All Odds Against Me, That's What the Blues Is All About Grandparents William Hooker, Minnie Ramsey Nominations Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album | ||
John Lee Hooker Jr. - Boom Boom - 2012 - Kulturbastion Torgau
John Lee Hooker Jr. (born 1952) is an American blues musician. He is the son of influential blues singer John Lee Hooker (1912–2001). The younger Hooker's musical style is markedly modernized, featuring contemporary arrangements.
Contents
- John Lee Hooker Jr Boom Boom 2012 Kulturbastion Torgau
- John Lee Hooker Jr From The Blues to the Pews
- Studio albums
- Live albums
- References
Born in Detroit, Hooker was performing live on local radio stations by the time he was 8 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. 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 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.
Hooker's 2008 touring band included of George Lacson (Bass), Jeff Horan (Guitar), Mike Rogers (Drums), and Gig Anderson (Keys).
John Lee, now an ordained minister 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 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.