John Mayall

Vocation

Family

English blues musician of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, described as the seminal British blues band. Eric Clapton once said of him, Mayall "has run a great school for musicians," giving credit to the bluesman for a long and successful career playing with many stars of the jazz and blues world. The son of a guitarist, Mayall taught himself to play piano and guitar with borrowed instruments after listening intently to his dad's record collection. After college in which he studied art, he enlisted in the British Army and was assigned to Korea. He married and settled in to a career of graphic design. But at age 30 he began to play part-time with a band, The Powerhouse Four. He met Alexis Korner of Blues Incorporated who encouraged Mayall to move to London and play professionally. There he formed John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and met Eric Clapton. Their joint album was released in 1966. The following year his tour of the US was so successful that he moved to Laurel Canyon, CA. His 1969 album "The Turning Point" with its hit single "Room to Move" earned a gold record. The 1970s brought great difficulty and great pressure. He began to drink more. When his home erupted in a fire, he jumped and sustained an injury which caused him to give up drinking. Unfortunately he lost many of his prized possessions, records, and music memorabilia. Resurrecting himself and his career, he has continued to play and record well well into the first decade of the 21st century. With nearly 40 albums to his credit and his great influence in the world of music, he was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) on November 25, 2005. Mayall has married twice and has six children. Link to Wikipedia biography