"Blind" Willie Johnson (January 22, 1897 – September 18, 1945) was an American singer and guitarist whose music straddled the border between blues and spirituals. While the lyrics of all of his songs were religious, his music drew from both sacred and blues traditions. Among musicians, he is considered one of the greatest slide or bottleneck guitarists, as well as one of the most revered figures of depression-era gospel music. His music is distinguished by his powerful bass thumb-picking and gravelly false-bass voice, with occasional use of a tenor voice.
Blind Willie Johnson was born in 1897 near Brenham, Texas. His mother died when he was young and his father remarried soon after her death.
Johnson was not born blind. When he was seven, his father beat his stepmother after catching her going out with another man. The stepmother then picked up a handful of lye (a corrosive alkaline substance used to cure food) and threw it, not at Willie's father, but into the face of young Willie.
His father would often leave him on street corners to sing for money, where his powerful voice left an indelible impression on passers-by. Legend has it that he was arrested for nearly starting a riot at a New Orleans courthouse with a powerful rendition of "If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down", a song about Samson and Delilah. According to Samuel Charters, however, he was simply arrested while singing for tips in front of a Custom House, by a police officer who misconstrued the title lyric and mistook it for incitement.
It is thought that Johnson was married twice, and remained poor until the end of his life, preaching and singing in the streets of Beaumont, Texas to anyone who would listen.
In 1945, his home burned to the ground. With nowhere else to go, Johnson lived in the burned ruins of his home, sleeping on a wet bed. He lived like this until he contracted pneumonia two weeks later, and died. The death certificate reports the cause of death as malarial fever, with syphilis and blindness as contributing factors. In a later interview, his second wife said she tried to take him to a hospital but they refused to admit him because he was black, while other sources report that, according to Johnson's wife, his refusal was due to his blindness.
Some of Johnson's most famous recordings include "In My Time of Dying", the stirring "It's Nobody's Fault But Mine", his rendition of the famous gospel song "Let Your Light Shine On Me", as well as the raw, powerful "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground", where he sings in wordless hum and moans about the crucifixion of Jesus.
His records have kept his music tremendously influential and his songs have been covered by several popular artists, including Led Zeppelin (who included his photograph on their second album), Bob Dylan, The 77s, Beck, and The White Stripes (who have covered "John the Revelator", as well as covering "Motherless Children Have A Hard Time" and “Lord, I Just Can't Keep From Cryin'” live.
“Dark Was The Night, Cold Was the Ground” was included on the Voyager Golden Record, sent into space with the Voyager spacecraft in 1977.
Although Blind Willie Johnson lived a hard life on Earth, his music quite literally reached the heavens, and the stars.
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