Ever heard of Les Paul?
- Les Paul was a guitarist that worked particularly in the areas of jazz, blues and country, and invented some music related items.
- Les Paul’s full name is Lester William Polsfuss and was born on 9 June, 1915, in Waukesha in USA’s Wisconsin.
- Les Paul invented one of the first solid body electric guitars in 1940, and later had one named after him.
- Les Paul is featured in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and won two Grammy Awards in 2006.
- Les Paul’s first instrument to learn was the harmonica, then the piano, followed by the guitar, and later he became a semi-professional guitarist, harmonica player and country singer by age thirteen.
Les Paul 2008
Image courtesy of Thomas Faivre-Duboz/Flickr
- Les Paul originally had the stage names ‘Red Hot Red’ and ‘Rhubarb Red’, and was also known as ‘Wizard of Waukesha’.
- At a young age, Les Paul invented a hands-free holder for a harmonica, that went around his neck that could be used while he was performing.
- Les Paul met his second wife (he divorced his first wife Virginia Webb), Iris Summers, known as Mary Ford, in 1945, whom he married in 1949, but divorced in the early 1960s, just before Paul’s retirement.
- Les Paul semi-retired in 1965, but still performed until his death, ending his life with 40 albums.
- Les Paul nearly electrocuted himself in 1941, survived a major car accident in 1948, had significant heart surgery in 1987, suffered from arthritis, and eventually died on 12 August, 2009, age 94, due to pneumonia complications.
Bibliography: Les Paul, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Paul
Baker, Les Paul, So Much More Than A Guitar, 2014, The Les Paul Foundation, http://lespaulfoundation.org/about-les-paul.html
