Buddy Guy

Arguably one of the most acclaimed blues guitarists of the 20th century, as well as a living link to the Chicago blues scene's 1950s heyday, Buddy Guy's show-stopping talents provided him with a career that spanned over five decades while influencing a generation of legendary rock guitarists, including Eric Clapton and Jonny Lang. He rose to fame in the 1950s with songs like "The First Time I Met the Blues" and "Stone Crazy," which were earmarked by his fiery string-bending and aching, intense vocals. Guy was also a notoriously powerful live performer who wowed crowds by playing his guitar behind his head and with his teeth and by employing feedback and distortion at least a decade before Hendrix and others would do the same with their own music. But like many veteran blues artists, Guy labored in obscurity for much of the 1970s and 1980s before a career revival in 1991, which saw him embracing pop and rock music with the same all-out sonic attack as his classic '50s sides. By the new millennium, Guy was unquestionably the most popular traditional blues player in the world, rivaled only by B.B. King - a status attained by his tireless devotion to playing his heart and soul before fans every night for nearly his entire life.