An introduction to John Lee Hooker in nine essential albums

Of all the postwar blues giants, John Lee Hooker was the rock star. The bluesman’s rebel streak was already in evidence when – aged just 14 – he ran away from the Mississippi farm of his childhood and a minister father who “thought the guitar was the Devil’s work”.

Yet Hooker’s true rebellion was his blood-oath to play the blues his way. Defying genre dogma and mangling song structure, his hypnotic riffs and acetate-ancient voice won him fanboys from Keith Richards to Carlos Santana. But for all the fame and fortune, you only had to look at Hooker’s face – impassive beneath the trademark hat and shades – to sense his higher purpose.

“The blues is my life,” he said in 1990. “I am the blues. I’ll never get out of them alive.”

Henry Yates has been a freelance journalist since 2002 and written about music for titles including The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Classic Rock, Guitarist, Total Guitar and Metal Hammer. He is the author of Walter Trout’s official biography, Rescued From Reality, a music pundit on Times Radio and BBC TV, and an interviewer who has spoken to Brian May, Jimmy Page, Ozzy Osbourne, Ronnie Wood, Dave Grohl, Marilyn Manson, Kiefer Sutherland and many more.