Chester Arthur Burnett, better known by his stage name Howlin’ Wolf, was an American blues singer and guitarist who lived from June 10, 1910, until January 10, 1976.
He is regarded as one of the greatest blues artists that have ever lived. He released music in the blues, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and psychedelic rock genres during the course of a four-decade career.
Additionally, he made the transition from Chicago blues to Delta blues easier. He had a difficult life because he was one of six children born into poverty in Mississippi. His mother expelled him from her home, and he moved in with his particularly violent great-uncle.
In the early 1930s, he became a protégé of renowned Delta blues guitarist and singer Charley Patton after escaping to his father’s house and ultimately finding a loving family.
After beginning his solo career in the Deep South and performing with other eminent blues musicians of the time, he established himself in the Mississippi Delta by the end of ten years.
Howlin’ Wolf, a blues musician, began his recording career in 1951 after Ike Turner, who was 19 at the time, overheard him singing. In 1991, he was admitted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Burnett was posthumously inducted into the Blues and Rock Halls of Fame after passing away in 1976.
One of the most well-known Chicago blues musicians is Howlin’ Wolf.
His tunes “Smokestack Lightnin’,” “Killing Floor,” and “Spoonful” have all gone on to become blues and blues rock classics. He came in at number 54 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time.”
Howlin’ Wolf family and wife
Burnett and Lillie Handley (1925–2001), his future wife, first met when she came to one of his concerts at a Chicago nightclub.
She and her family were well-educated and urbane, and they avoided the blues singers’ purportedly seedy milieu. But as soon as he spotted her in the audience, he was drawn to her. He went after her right away and won her over.
The pair remained devoted to each other up until his passing, according to individuals who knew them.
Howlin’ Wolf children
Burnett and Lillie Handley brought up Lillie’s kids from an earlier relationship, Betty and Barbara.
Howlin’ Wolf parents
In White Station, Mississippi, Chester Arthur Burnett was born to Gertrude Jones and Leon “Dock” Burnett. In contrast to Jones, who had Choctaw ancestry on her father’s side, he would subsequently claim that his father was “Ethiopian.”
Howlin’ Wolf siblings
Chester had six other siblings. They lived very simple lives therefore nothing is known about them to this day.
