Chicago blues great Hubert Sumlin has died of heart failure at a hospital in Wayne, New Jersey, aged 80.
Sumlin found fame as the guitarist for Howlin' Wolf from 1954 to 1976, aside from a brief detour as guitarist for Muddy Waters in 1956. He was known for his distinctive tone that came purely from his fingers: Sumlin felt that as picks were synthetic, they interfered with the purity of the note.
Sumlin recently appeared on Kenny Wayne Shepherd's Ten Days Out: Blues from the Backroads and Live In Chicago releases.
"Hubert Sumlin has influenced so many people," Shepherd told I Heart Guitar in 2010. “He’s probably one of the most influential guitar players ever. And he’s one of the greatest guys. If you ever get to meet him, he’s just one of the sweetest men you could ever meet. One of the greatest things about getting to play with him was developing a relationship on a personal level. We became very close, and that’s really one of the most valuable things I could take away from meeting and playing with him. It was a wonderful experience to stand there and hear him play all these guitar riffs.”
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