Robert Leroy Johnson, born May 8, 1911, was an American blues musician and songwriter. His key records from 1936 and 1937 demonstrate a distinct blend of singing, guitar, and songwriting abilities that influenced succeeding generations of singers.
Despite the fact that his recorded career lasted only seven months, he is now considered as a master of the blues, particularly the Delta blues style, as well as one of the twentieth century’s most prominent performers.
Johnson died on August 16, 1938, near Greenwood, Mississippi, of unknown causes at the age of 27.
Johnson’s death was kept private. Gayle Dean Wardlow, a Mississippi-based musicologist researching Johnson’s biography, uncovered Johnson’s death certificate nearly 30 years later, which only stated the date and site of death with no official cause of death.
There was no formal autopsy. Instead, in order to file the death certificate, a formal examination was conducted, and no immediate cause of death was discovered.
He suffered congenital syphilis, which medical authorities later suspected may have contributed to his death. 30 years of local oral tradition, on the other hand, had built a story that, like the rest of his life narrative, had filled in gaps in the scant historical data.
How did Robert Johnson learn guitar so fast?
Johnson learned licks from Son House, who later in life clearly recalled how Johnson progressed from a mediocre guitarist to a “master” in just two years.
Johnson was supposedly inspired to practice guitar at a graveyard at night while perched atop tombstones by Ike Zinnerman.
