Luther Allison

American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist, whom Chicago Reader called "the Jimi Hendrix of blues guitar". Allison was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1998.

Allison was interested in music as a child and during the late 1940s he toured in a family gospel group called The Southern Travellers. He moved with his family to Chicago in 1951 and attended Farragut High School where he was classmates with Muddy Waters' son. He taught himself guitar and began listening to blues extensively. Three years later he dropped out of school and began hanging around outside blues nightclubs with the hopes of being invited to perform. Allison played with the bands of Howlin' Wolf and Freddie King, taking over King's band when King toured nationally. He worked with Jimmy Dawkins, Magic Sam and Otis Rush, and also backed James Cotton.

During his tour in the summer of 1997, Allison checked into a hospital on 10 July 1997 for dizziness and loss of coordination. It was discovered that he had a tumour on his lung that had metastasized to his brain. He began radiation therapy on 16 July which lasted through 1 August. In and out of a coma, Allison died at around 2:30 A.M. on 12 August 1997, five days before his 58th birthday, in Madison, Wisconsin.