Link Wray

Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr. (May 2, 1929 – November 5, 2005) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist who became popular in the late 1950s. His 1958 instrumental single "Rumble" reached the top 20 in the United States, and was one of the earliest songs in rock music to use distortion and tremolo.

Rolling Stone ranked Wray at No. 45 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. He received two nominations for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, prior to being inducted in the Musical Influence category in 2023.

Wray was born on May 2, 1929, in Dunn, North Carolina, to Fred Lincoln Wray Sr. and Lillian Mae (née Coats), whom her son identified as being of Shawnee descent. Wray recalled living in very harsh conditions during childhood, in mud huts, without electricity or heating, going to school barefoot, barely clothed. He recounted that his family experienced discrimination, including times when they had to hide from the Ku Klux Klan. Wray later said: "The cops, the sheriff, the drugstore owner—they were all Ku Klux Klan. They put the masks on and, if you did something wrong, they'd tie you to a tree and whip you or kill you." His family listed themselves as White on census records. Three songs Wray performed during his career were named for Indigenous peoples: "Shawnee", "Apache", and "Comanche".

Wray lived with his family in Portsmouth, Virginia, from 1942 to 1955. He and his brothers Ray and Doug drove cabs during the day while working at night clubs in the Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia, area. Wray's first bands, The Lucky Wray Band and The Palomino Ranch Gang, formed in Portsmouth and included brothers Ray, Doug, and Vernon and two other musicians, Dixie Neal and Shorty Horton.

Wray served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War (1950–53). He contracted tuberculosis, which hospitalized him for a year. His stay concluded with the removal of a lung, which doctors predicted would mean he would never be able to sing again.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.