📍West Point, MS 39773, USA
1910 – 1933“I was born Chester Arthur Burnett in June 1910 in White Station, a small settlement near West Point, in the hills of north-east Mississippi, the son of Gertrude Jones and Leon Dock Burnett, and named after a president. My grandfather called me the Wolf, to scare me when I was naughty, and the name stuck. My parents split up when I was small, and my mother sent me away, so I went to live with my uncle, Will Young, a preacher at the White Station Baptist Church. My uncle was a hard, cruel man who mistreated all the children in his house, and one friend called him the meanest man between here and hell. I worked hard on his farm, and he beat me often. When I was about thirteen, I ran away, walking barefoot for miles, and I found my father in the Delta, near Ruleville, where at last I found a home. In January 1928 my father bought me my first guitar, and I talked Charley Patton, the great bluesman who lived nearby, into giving me lessons. He taught me guitar, and how to put on a show, playing behind my back and between my legs. I learned the harmonica from Sonny Boy Williamson, and I played around the Delta while I farmed with my father. After serving in the army, I moved to West Memphis and played on the radio, and in 1952 I went to Chicago, where I recorded Smokestack Lightnin', Spoonful and Back Door Man for Chess Records. I stood six foot three and my voice was like gravel. West Point honours me with an annual blues festival and a museum.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today