16 Facts About John Primer

John Primer shared a bed with cousins, and lost his father at age 22 after a truck accident when he was four years old.

John Primer fell in love with the blues in infancy when his father and an elder cousin played guitar and sang at night after a hard day in the fields.

John Primer promised to bring John and his sister to the big city when they reached age 18, leaving them with family.

Depressed and lonely, young John Primer frequently went into the neighboring woods, where he cried his troubles away and began singing the blues in solitude.

John Primer eventually built himself a diddley bow on the side of his grandmother's house out of broom wire, two nails and a brick and began accompanying himself as he sang, eventually playing for dimes and quarters in his schoolyard.

John Primer eventually started learning his trade by playing for tips at the legendary Maxwell Street market alongside blues superstars and raw beginners like himself.

John Primer held the position until Waters' passing in 1983, during which he received additional training on the six-string and Muddy instilled in him the importance of maintaining the old-school blues tradition.

John Primer's lengthy recording career as a sideman began as a member of the Waters band in 1980 with Blues Deluxe, a compilation recorded live by radio station WXRT-FM at Navy Pier.

John Primer recorded with Muddy and the Rolling Stones at Buddy Guy's Checkerboard Lounge in 1981, a concert that was eventually released as an award-winning DVD.

John Primer began sitting in at jams at the Checkerboard in that era, eventually spent two decades as the band leader for Monday night jams, where he began passing on his skills to a younger group of musicians.

John Primer maintained the position until 2001, when the original nightclub closed its doors for the final time.

John Primer made his recording debut as front man with Poor Man's Blues for Wolf Records, the Austria-based label that was Magic Slim's longtime home.

In 2007, the composer, producer and author Larry Hoffman was commissioned by the Chicago Sinfonietta Orchestra to compose "Three Songs for Bluesman and Orchestra", an orchestral setting of three songs by John Primer, who sang and improvised, fronting the orchestra under the direction of Paul Freeman.

John Primer has subsequently enjoyed an enduring relationship with Wolf Records as well as his own Blues House Productions imprint, which was founded in 2008.

John Primer is a 2017 inductee into the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame, a lifetime achievement award nominee from the Mississippi Valley Blues Society and the Pennsylvania Blues Society.

John Primer has received numerous awards and honors throughout his career.