Jeff Healey

Canadian music icon, Jeff Healey, was born in Toronto in 1966. Blind from early childhood due to retinoblastoma (a rare form of eye cancer), Jeff Healey’s guitar playing virtuosity & soulful voice saw him rise up in the entertainment world in the late 1980s & ‘90s selling millions of albums worldwide. Getting his first guitar at the age of 3, he developed a unique style of playing. Placing the guitar flat on his lap, & playing it like a lap steel, hands over the fret board, gave him the flexibility of fretting with all 5 fingers & the power of pulling notes with the strength of his whole hand. For over 2 decades, Jeff enjoyed a successful music career that spanned rock, blues and traditional jazz. Grammy nominee and Juno award winner, he was a radio personality, jazz historian & world famous record collector (owning over 30,000 1920s & ‘30s jazz 78s). With the JHB, he recorded 5 studio albums & contributed to the soundtrack of the cult classic, Road House; a film in which Jeff & the band were featured prominently. Over the years, Jeff’s reputation as a player & person led him to perform & record with such luminaries as Stevie Ray Vaughan, B.B. King, John Mayall, Eric Clapton, Lenny Kravitz, George Harrison, Ian Gillan & many more. In addition to recording sessions as a guitarist, trumpet player, singer & producer, Jeff also recorded 3 albums of the traditional American jazz. Jeff Healey passed away in 2008 after a 3 year battle with sarcoma cancer. He was 41-years-old.