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Freddie King

FREDDIE KING

YEAR

2012

INDUCTED BY

ZZ Top

CATEGORY

Early Influences

He didn’t just play the guitar—he attacked it.

His authoritative presence and vigorous showmanship earned him the nickname the “Texas Cannonball.” His heavy-handed licks can still be heard today in the playing of Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor, all King acolytes.

Freddie King

Freddie King

HALL OF FAME
ESSAY

By Ted Drodowski

Blues innovator Freddie King sang like a lion and struck his guitar’s strings with rattlesnake intensity. Those talents, along with his compositional brilliance, took King to the pinnacle of success in the blues world of the sixties and seventies.

Thanks to his ingenious gift for hooks and melodies, his 1961 instrumental hits, “Hide Away” and “San-Ho-Zay,” shattered the race-music barrier and crashed the pop charts. Kings songs, like his 1960 Federal Records single “You’ve Got to Love Her With a Feeling,” backed with “Have You Ever Loved a Woman,” carry an emotional charge that still showers sparks across the decades.

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Class of 2012
the "Texas Cannonball."
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