John Lee Hooker ranks high on the list of pioneering blues musicians. His hypnotic rhythms and stomping grooves influenced everyone from the Rolling Stones to Eric Clapton, The Doors, Carlos Santana and Bruce Springsteen.
His first hit, “Boogie Chillen,’” remains his calling card (with “Boom Boom” a close second), and on the occasion of what would've been his his 101st birthday—Hooker was born in Mississippi on August 22, 1917—here he is performing his classic hit with a little help from his friends. In the clip above, Hooker is joined by the Rolling Stones and Clapton, at a stop in Atlantic City, New Jersey on the Stones’ Steel Wheels tour in 1989.
“Thank you John Lee Hooker!” Keith Richards says at the end of the performance, perhaps speaking for us all.
