Hubert Sumlin life and biography

Hubert Sumlin was a blues guitar player known as a both a solo artist and central element in Howlin’ Wolf’s backup band. Listed in Rolling Stone’s The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, he is cited as a major influence by many artists, including Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimmy Page. Hubert taught Stevie Vaughn to play many of his signature tunes while living in Austin, TX in the late 1970’s.

Born in Greenwood, Mississippi, Sumlin was raised in Hughes, Arkansas. As a boy, Sumlin met Howlin’ Wolf (Chester Burnett) by sneaking into a performance. Burnett invited Sumlin to play guitar in his Chicago-based band. Sumlin also briefly played guitar for Muddy Waters. Playing primarily as the lead guitarist in Burnett’s band from the early 1950s until 1980, several years after Burnett’s death, Sumlin has also recorded under his own name. His latest effort is About Them Shoes, released in 2005 by Tone Cool Records. He underwent lung removal surgery in 2004 but is still going strong as of 2007. Sumlin resided in Austin,TX and performed at local bars.

Sumlin was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 2008. He was nominated for four Grammy Awards; in 1999 for the album Tribute to Howlin' Wolf with Henry Gray, Calvin Jones, Sam Lay, and Colin Linden, in 2000 for Legends with Pinetop Perkins, in 2006 for his solo project About Them Shoes (which featured performances by Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Levon Helm, David Johansen and James Cotton) and in 2010 for his participation on Kenny Wayne Shepherd's Live! in Chicago. He won multiple Blues Music Awards, and was a judge for the fifth annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.

He died on December 4, 2011, in a hospital in Wayne, New Jersey, of heart failure at the age of 80.Mick Jagger and Keith Richards paid Sumlin's funeral costs.

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