John Lee Hooker’s Stuttering Highlighted in New Documentary

John Lee Hooker's stutter caught fellow Blues music legend Buddy Guy by surprise, according to a new documentary on PBS, "Buddy Guy: The Blues Chase The Blues Away." Buddy recounts his first meeting with his idol, John Lee Hooker, this way: “I wanted to meet John Lee Hooker but I didn’t know he stuttered, because he never stuttered when he sang.”

As detailed in the film, Buddy picked up an acoustic guitar and started playing Hooker’s “Boogie Chillen’,” which drew Hooker’s attention. Hooker then introduced himself to Guy as “Johnny.”

Author Charles Shaar Murray wrote in his biography of Hooker that many people did impressions of Hooker and that his stuttering is a big part of why. “Anybody who tells you an anecdote about John Lee Hooker as a young man will inevitably end up mimicking his characteristic stutter.” Reportedly in the spirit of self-parody, Hooker used an exaggerated stutter when telling stories about himself. This good-natured form of self-parody is evident in Hooker's classic 1953 song "Stuttering Blues."

Watch the new documentary to see how their first meeting turned out, and read this article about John Lee Hooker from our list of Famous People Who Stutter.

Posted Aug. 3, 2021

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