Born in Gilmer, Texas, on this day in 1934 and raised in the South Side of Chicago, Freddie King was a famed blues guitarist known for his powerful, soulful voice, distinctive guitar style and hard-partying lifestyle (he died at 42 in 1976). His Rock & Roll Hall of Fame page says: “Blues innovator Freddie King sang like a lion and struck his guitar’s strings with rattlesnake intensity.” Friend Eric Clapton covered his 1960 recording of “Have You Ever Loved a Woman” on the “Layla” album (here is King performing the tune at the Sugarbowl in South Carolina in 1972).
