WAYNE, N.J. — Greenwood native and blues guitar legend Hubert Sumlin died of heart failure Sunday at a New Jersey hospital, according to the Chicago Sun-Times and Rolling Stone magazine.
Sumlin, 80, was a longtime resident of Milwaukee.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete this morning.
Sumlin was honored with a Mississippi Blues Trail Marker in Greenwood in May 2008.
He played lead guitar for blues icon Howlin’ Wolf from 1953 until 1976. Sumlin’s hard-charging style influenced a generation of rock guitarists in the 1960s.
Rolling Stone had recently ranked Sumlin No. 43 on its list of 100 greatest guitarists of all-time.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones said that his two personal guitar heroes were Chuck Berry and Hubert Sumlin.
The paper, in a 1998 interview with Sumlin, said he was the son of sharecropping parents in Greenwood.
The blues marker on West River Road Extended was placed near his childhood home.
Sumlin, according to the Journal Sentinel, hooked up with Howlin Wolf, who the paper described as an “average guitarist.” It was Wolf who persuaded Sumlin to come play with him in Chicago.
Besides a brief stint with Muddy Waters, Sumlin remained Wolf’s lead guitarist until Wolf’s death in 1976.
Notable hits from the duo included “Smokestack Lightnin’,” “Killing Floor,” “The Red Rooster,” “Three Hundred Pounds of Joy” and “Built For Comfort.”
The Journal Sentinel reported that in 1987, Sumlin, with the help of bandleader/guitarist Ronnie Earl, put out “Hubert Sumlin’s Blues Party,” which was widely regarded as his best solo work.
In 1989, Sumlin moved from Chicago to Milwaukee.
