Freddie King

Texas born Freddie King began playing guitar with his family and friends at the age of six. Relocating to Chicago when he was 16 years old, King began developing an individual style that fused elements of Lightning Hopkins, T-Bone Walker and B.B. King into a sound uniquely his own. King played with a plastic thumb pick and a metal index-finger pick, techniques he claimed to have learned from Eddie Taylor and Jimmie Rogers. After performing in local clubs throughout the 1950s and recording with the likes of Muddy Waters, Sonny Cooper, and T-Bone Walker, King made his professional debut in 1958. Within the next several years, he began touring with his own band throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia, influencing countless guitarists of the rock generation to follow. Classic originals such as "Have You Ever Loved A Woman" and the infectious instrumental, "Hide Away," would have a profound impact on younger blues and rock musicians such as Peter Green, Eric Clapton, Johnny Winter and later, Stevie Ray Vaughan, all of whom sang his praises and recorded his songs.