YEAR
1991
INDUCTED BY
Jon Landau & Robert Cray
CATEGORY
Early Influences
A big, imposing man with a voice to match.
Even Howlin’ Wolf’s six foot three frame couldn’t contain his unrestrained vocals and larger than life stage presence. The Chicago blues icon is revered by the likes of the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton.
Howlin' Wolf
HALL OF FAME
ESSAY
By Peter Guralnick
Howlin’ Wolf was larger life in every respect.
As an entertainer, as an individual, and as a bluesman, he was outsized, unpredictable, and always his own man. He was a great blues singer who possessed that quality of egocentric self-absorption that is the mark of the true showman.
To many people this may seem contradictory, but Wolf proved that to its natural audience blues is not all pain and suffering, but is instead a kind of release.
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