Legendary John Lee Hooker And John Dote'

The legendary and the world's greatest blues singer John Lee Hooker was loved by millions of fans throughout the world. It was no secret that some of his closest freinds included Carlos Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Van Morrison.

Another close freind was his occassional drummer, "The Theme Man", John Dote' (Hawaii Five-0, Charlie's Angel's, Dynasty and Dallas), who used to perform with "The Hook" in the San Francisco Bay Area during the early 80's. It was Hookers keyboard player and director Deacon Jones who ran into Dote' at a doctor's office in San Carlos, California, who over heard Dote' make the statement that he was a recording producer.

Jones lit up and approached Dote' stating that he was a keyboard player. The rest became History. Not long after that encounter, Dote', who was living in the same town as the legend himself, became aquainted with Hooker who invited Dote' to play the drums at his smoked filled concerts.

Dote', known as one of the country's top drummer's lived up and fullfilled the occassion to the delight of the audiences which they entertained. It was common to also see other blues legends such as Buddy Miles and Greg Allman join in as guest's stars.

Hooker and Dote' wound up becoming the best of freinds and although Hooker has since passed, his music remains classic and unsurpassed. Above is the photo of the legendary John Lee Hooker and the Theme Drummer, John Dote' at a Marin County sold out event.     

 John Lee Hooker is one of the original innovators and kings of African American popular music, commonly called the blues. He was born on August 22, 1917, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, to a Baptist minister. Later he became the stepson of William Moore, a guitarist. At the age of 14, he started singing with spiritual groups. Hooker learned his style of guitar playing from his stepfather.(Stratyner 112) He also learned to play from his colleagues, James Smith and Coot Harris. His style of guitar playing is known as two-finger picking.(Stratyner 112) His two-finger picking style is known as Deltalick.

John Lee Hooker passed away in his sleep in his home in Los Altos, San Francisco Bay Area, California during the night between June 20 and June 21, 2001. Official death Thursday 21. He is still the greatest blues singer in the world.

John Lee Hooker is a giant of the blues and the father of the boogie. Beginning in 1948 with his first single, "Boogie Chillen," he introduced the world to the persistent, chugging rhythm of boogie music, a form of country blues Hooker learned back home in Mississippi. His foot-stomping boogie was adapted and amplified in the Sixties and Seventies by a great number of rock and roll artists, including the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, Canned Heat, John Mayall, Ten Years After, Foghat, ZZ Top and George Thorogood. Beyond his ability to lock into a hypnotic boogie groove, Hooker is renowned for the gruff emotionality of his voice and the stark intensity of his guitar playing. Over the decades, he has proven to be a survivor. When interest in electric blues began cooling off, Hooker found a niche for himself on the coffeehouse circuit during the acoustic folk-music boom of the late Fifties and early Sixties. More recently, his career has enjoyed a sustained resurgence that included a Grammy award for his 1989 album The Healer. Hooker was born on August 22, 1917, to a sharecropping family in Clarksdale, Mississippi. His stepfather, Will Moore, taught him how to play guitar, and as a young man Hooker encountered such blues legends as Charley Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Blake along the way. In his early teens, Hooker ran off to Memphis, where he worked as a theater usher and played music on the side. He also lived in Cincinnati and Knoxville before settling down in Detroit in 1943. He labored in an auto factory by day and played blues at house parties and clubs along the city's legendary Hastings Street. In 1948, he recorded "Boogie Chillen," an enormously influential single that was picked up for national distribution by Modern Records and rose to Number One on the R&B chart in 1949. Hooker went on to record for more than two dozen labels, often resorting to aliases such as John Lee Cooker, Delta John and the Boogie Man for contractual reasons. Much of his most popular work, including the classic versions of "Boom Boom" and "Crawling Kingsnake," appeared on the Vee-Jay label. Beloved by rock and rollers, Hooker has never lacked for support and collaborators. In 1970 Canned Heat collaborated with Hooker on a landmark double album entitled Hooker ‘n' Heat. Hooker appeared in The Blues Brothers movie, sang the title role on Pete Townshend's concept album The Iron Man, and has duetted with Van Morrison. His latter-day projects have attracted such contributors as Carlos Santana, Keith Richards, Robert Cray, Bonnie Raitt and Los Lobos. In October 1990, a host of friends and admirers participated in an all-star concert celebration of Hooker's music at Madison Square Garden.