Willie King was a contemporary Mississippi blues musician who reluctantly began his career in music late in life. Prior to that, he worked as a sharecropper, moonshiner and traveling salesman. It wasn’t until the Civil Rights movement that he began writing topical blues songs. And it wasn’t until 1999 that he started making records. He ultimately released six albums and was profiled in Martin Scorsese’sThe Blues: Feels Like Going Home documentary. Willie King suffered a fatal heart attack on March 8, 2009. He was 65 years old.
Lowell Fulson was an influential west coast blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter who was one of the key figures of the ’40s and ’50s. After moving to Los Angeles in the early ’40s, Fulson formed his first band which included future greats, Ray Charles and Stanley Turrentine. Over the course of his career, Fulson released such now-classics as “3 O’Clock Blues,” “Lonesome Blues,” and “Reconsider Baby” which was later made into a hit by Elvis Presley and selected by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. He continued recording and performing well into the ’90s. Lowell Fulson was 77 when he died from complications of diabetes, kidney disease and congestive heart failure on March 6, 1999.
For all intents and purposes, John Belushi had two successful, yet brief careers. Belushi skyrocketed to fame thanks to his amazing comedic abilities that were showcased nationally when he became a cast member during Saturday Night Live’s inaugural season of 1975. During breaks from the show, Belushi acted in some of the era’s most popular comedies. That list includes Animal House, Continental Divide, and of course, The Blues Brothers, which showcased his singing abilities as well. The Blues Brothers were a singing duo made up of Belushi and SNL cast mate, Dan Aykroyd who were first introduced on the show, and then elevated to starring roles in the popular musical comedy of the same name. Premiering in June of 1980, the film went on to gross $115 million and spawn Briefcase Full Of Blues, the double-platinum soundtrack. A strong part of the duo’s appeal was that they were backed up by some of the greatest session musicians popular music has ever know, the Saturday Night Live house band. Belushi’s singing (or at least his mimicking) talents were also featured in a legendary SNL segment when he “dueted” with Joe Cocker, performing as his popular parody of Cocker, himself. During Belushi’s meteoric rise to the top, he also developed a reputation as a hard partier. On March 5, 1982, he and several friends were hanging out at a West Hollywood hotel. At one point, as was confessed at a later date, a female acquaintance injected Belushi with a fatal dose of cocaine and heroin. John Belushi died as a result at the age of 33. The woman eventually accepted a plea bargain to involuntary manslaughter and served 15 months in prison.
John Cephas was a blues guitarist and singer who, with his musical partner and harmonica player, Phil Wiggins helped keep the Piedmont style of blues alive well into the 21st century. Cephas began playing with Wiggins after meeting each other at a folk festival in the mid ’70s. Over the course of their career together, they released over a dozen albums for such respected blues labels and Flying Fish and Alligator. 1987’s Dog Days Of August earned them a W.C. Handy award for Best Blues Album, while their 2002 Somebody Told The Truth shot to #8 on the Billboard Blues Chart. John Cephas, age 78, died of pulmonary fibrosis on March 4, 2009.
Although he lost his site to retinoblastoma at just eight months, Jeff Healey would grow to become one of the greatest blues guitarists the world had ever seen. He could definitely hold his own alongside such greats as Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Buddy Guy. Beginning at age three, Healey would master the unusual style of playing his guitar flat on his lap. He would start his career in various jazz bands but would later dabble in blues rock with the release of his 1988 platinum debut album, See The Light. Throughout the years, he amassed a huge personal record collection that included a reported 25,000+ 78s, mostly made up of his true love, Jazz. Healey died of cancer on March 2, 2008, just a few weeks before the release of his tenth album, Mess Of Blues, his first rock album in eight years.