Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates (December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known professionally as Bo Diddley, was an American guitarist and singer who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll. He influenced many artists, including Buddy Holly,[3] Elvis Presley,[4] the Beatles, the Rolling Stones,[5] the Animals, George Thorogood, Syd Barrett,[6] and the Clash.[7]
This article is about the singer. For other uses, see Bo Diddley (disambiguation).
Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates[1]
- Ellas Bates McDaniel
- The Originator
December 30, 1928
McComb, Mississippi, U.S.
June 2, 2008 (aged 79)
Archer, Florida, U.S.
- Musician
- singer
- songwriter
- guitarist
- Guitar
- vocals
1943–2007
His use of African rhythms and a signature beat, a simple five-accent hambone rhythm, is a cornerstone of hip hop, rock, and pop music.[5][8][9] In recognition of his achievements, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, the Blues Hall of Fame in 2003, and the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in 2017.[10][8][11] He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.[12] Diddley is also recognized for his technical innovations, including his use of tremolo and reverb effects to enhance the sound of his distinctive rectangular-shaped guitars.[13][14]
Early life[edit]
Bo Diddley was born in McComb, Mississippi,[nb 1] as Ellas Otha Bates (also stated as Otha Ellas Bates or Elias Otha Bates).[16] He was the only child of Ethel Wilson, a sharecropper's teenaged daughter, and Eugene Bates,[17] whom he never knew. Wilson was only sixteen, and being unable to support a family, she gave her cousin, Gussie McDaniel,[18] permission to raise her son.[15] McDaniel eventually adopted him, and he assumed her surname.[19] Diddley denied ever having the name "Otha" in a 2001 interview, saying "I don't know where they got that 'Otha' from",[20] but his web site, maintained by his estate, confirms it as his middle name.
After his adoptive father Robert died in 1934, when Diddley was five years old,[21] Gussie McDaniel moved with him and her three children to the South Side of Chicago;[22][nb 2] he later dropped Otha from his name and became Ellas McDaniel.[23] He was an active member of Chicago's Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church,[24] where he studied the trombone and the violin,[22] becoming so proficient on the violin that the musical director invited him to join the orchestra, in which he played until he was 18. However, he was more interested in the joyful, rhythmic music he heard at a local Pentecostal Church and took up the guitar;[25] his first recordings were based on that frenetic church music.[26] Diddley said he thought that the trance-like rhythm he used in his rhythm and blues music came from the Sanctified churches he had attended as a youth in his Chicago neighborhood.[27]
Personal life[edit]
Marriages and children[edit]
Bo Diddley was married four times. His first marriage, at 18, to Louise Willingham, lasted a year.[48] Diddley married his second wife Ethel Mae Smith in 1949; they had two children.[88] He met his third wife, Kay Reynolds, when she was 15, while performing in Birmingham, Alabama.[86] They soon moved in together and married, despite taboos against interracial marriage.[86] They had two daughters.[88] He married his fourth wife, Sylvia Paiz, in 1992; they were divorced at the time of his death.[86][48]
Health problems[edit]
On May 13, 2007, Diddley was admitted to intensive care in Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, following a stroke after a concert the previous day in Council Bluffs, Iowa.[85] Starting the show, he had complained that he did not feel well. He referred to smoke from the wildfires that were ravaging south Georgia and blowing south to the area near his home in Archer, Florida. The next day, as he was heading back home, he seemed dazed and confused at the airport, and 911 was called, and he was immediately taken by ambulance to Creighton University Medical Center where he stayed for several days. He was then flown to Shands Hospital in Gainesville, FL, where it was confirmed that he had suffered a stroke.[89] Diddley had a history of hypertension and diabetes, and the stroke affected the left side of his brain, causing receptive and expressive aphasia (speech impairment).[90] The stroke was followed by a heart attack, which he suffered in Gainesville, Florida, on August 28, 2007.[86]
Death[edit]
Bo Diddley died on June 2, 2008, of heart failure at his home in Archer, Florida at the age of 79.[91][92] many family members, were with him when he died at 1:45 am. EDT, at his home. His death was not unexpected. "There was a Gospel song that was sung, at his bedside, and when it was done, he opened his eyes, gave a thumbs up, and said, "Wow! I'm goin' to Heaven!" The song was
'Walk Around Heaven', and those were his last words."[93]
He was survived by his children, Evelyn Kelly, Ellas A. McDaniel, Pamela Jacobs, Steven Jones, Terri Lynn McDaniel-Hines, and Tammi D. McDaniel; a brother, the Rev. Kenneth Haynes; and eighteen grandchildren, fifteen great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.[86]
His funeral, a four-hour "homegoing" service, took place on June 7, 2008, at Showers of Blessings Church in Gainesville, Florida. Many in attendance chanted "Hey Bo Diddley" as members of Diddley's band played a subdued version of the song.
A number of notable musicians sent flowers, including Little Richard, George Thorogood, Tom Petty and Jerry Lee Lewis. Little Richard, who had been asking his audiences to pray for Bo Diddley, throughout his illness, had to fulfill concert commitments in Westbury and New York City, the weekend of the funeral. He remembered Diddley at the concerts, performing his namesake tune. Eric Burdon of the Animals flew to Gainesville to attend the service.[94][95][96]
After the funeral service, a tribute concert was held at the Martin Luther King Center in Gainesville, Florida, featuring guest performances by his son and daughter, Ellas A. McDaniel and Evelyn "Tan" Cooper; long-time background vocalist (and original Boette), Gloria Jolivet, and long-time bassist and bandleader, Debby Hastings, Eric Burdon, and former Bo Diddley & Offspring guitarist, Scott Free. In the days following his death, tributes were paid by then-President George W. Bush, the United States House of Representatives, and musicians and performers including B. B. King, Ronnie Hawkins, Mick Jagger, Ronnie Wood, George Thorogood, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Robert Plant, Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Randolph and the Family Band and Eric Burdon. Burdon used video footage of the McDaniel family, and friends in mourning, for a video promoting his ABKCO Records release "Bo Diddley Special". Hastings is quoted as having said, "He was the rock that the roll was built on."
In November 2009, the guitar used by Bo Diddley in his final stage performance sold for $60,000 at auction.[97]
In 2019, members of Bo Diddley's family sued to regain control of the music catalog held in trust by attorney Charles Littell. The family was successful in appointing a new trustee, music industry veteran Kendall Minter.[98] The family was represented by Charles David of Florida Probate Law Group in the 2019 lawsuit.[99][100]
Bo Diddley was posthumously awarded a Doctor of Fine Arts degree by the University of Florida for his influence on American popular music. In its People in America radio series, about influential people in American history, the Voice of America radio service paid tribute to him, describing how "his influence was so widespread that it is hard to imagine what rock and roll would have sounded like without him." Mick Jagger stated that "he was a wonderful, original musician who was an enormous force in music and was a big influence on the Rolling Stones. He was very generous to us in our early years and we learned a lot from him". Jagger also praised the late star as a one-of-a-kind musician, adding, "We will never see his like again".[101] The documentary film Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street by director Phil Ranstrom features Bo Diddley's last on-camera interview.[102]
He achieved numerous accolades in recognition of his significant role as one of the founding fathers of rock and roll.
In 2003, U.S. Representative John Conyers paid tribute to Bo Diddley in the United States House of Representatives, describing him as "one of the true pioneers of rock and roll, who has influenced generations".[107]
In 2004, Mickey and Sylvia's 1956 recording of "Love Is Strange" (a song first recorded by Bo Diddley but not released until a year before his death) was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as a recording of qualitative or historical significance. Also in 2004, Bo Diddley was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Blues Hall of Fame and was ranked number 20 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[108]
In 2005, Bo Diddley celebrated his 50th anniversary in music with successful tours of Australia and Europe and with coast-to-coast shows across North America. He performed his song "Bo Diddley" with Eric Clapton and Robbie Robertson at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 20th annual induction ceremony. In the UK, Uncut magazine included his 1957 debut album, Bo Diddley, in its listing of the '100 Music, Movie & TV Moments That Have Changed the World'.
Bo Diddley was honored by the Mississippi Blues Commission with a Mississippi Blues Trail historic marker placed in McComb, his birthplace, in recognition of his enormous contribution to the development of the blues in Mississippi.[109] On June 5, 2009, the city of Gainesville, Florida, officially renamed and dedicated its downtown plaza the Bo Diddley Community Plaza. The plaza was the site of a benefit concert at which Bo Diddley performed to raise awareness about the plight of the homeless in Alachua County and to raise money for local charities, including the Red Cross.