From the Shadow of the Blues

A powerful memoir of redemption from the son of blues legend John Lee Hooker

Born in Detroit and exposed to the music world from an early age, John Lee Hooker Jr. began singing as a featured attraction in his father’s shows as a teenager. His father was a sharecropper’s son who became known for hit songs like “Boogie Chillin,” “I’m in the Mood,” and “Boom Boom,” and in 1972, he and his father performed live and recorded an album in Soledad Prison. Junior seemed to have a golden ticket to a successful music career as a child, but trouble brewed as his father’s marriage was in trouble and ripped apart the family.

Drug addiction and a series of related crimes, including as a con player, landed Junior in and out of jails & prisons for several decades. An early brush with the law led to a sentence at Synanon, the infamous drug rehabilitation program turned religious cult. Later arrests resulted in time served in prisons including at Soledad, San Quentin, and Avenal.

Shot, stabbed, and convicted multiple times, Junior was at his lowest point doing time at a Santa Rita jail, but it was at that moment that he found the Lord. He emerged clean and sober and began a successful career as a blues singer, earning two Grammy nominations as well as the Bobby “Blue” Bland Lifetime Achievement Award. He eventually devoted himself fully to his faith. Reverend John Lee Hooker Jr. testifies, preaches, and performs gospel music in churches and prisons in both Germany and America.

Reverend John Lee Hooker Jr., born in Detroit, Michigan, is the son of the blues legend John Lee Hooker and, as a teenager, toured with his dad as the featured attraction. He had a successful career as a blues artist, receiving two Grammy nominations and the Bobby “Blue” Bland Lifetime Achievement Award. Now an ordained minister, Reverend John Lee Hooker Jr. testifies, preaches, and performs gospel music in prisons. Visit johnleehookerjr.com.

Julia Simon is a Professor at the University of California, Davis and author of Debt and Redemption in the Blues: The Call for Justice, The Inconvenient Lonnie Johnson: Blues, Race, Identity, and Time in the Blues.

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