Legendary Chicago blues guitarist Otis Rush dies at 84

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He was a key architect of the Chicago “West Side Sound” in the 1950s and 1960s, which modernized traditional blues to introduce more of a jazzy, amplified sound.

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“He was one of the last great blues guitar heroes. He was an electric God,” said Gregg Parker, CEO and a founder of the Chicago Blues Museum.

Rush loved to play to live audiences, from small clubs on the West Side of Chicago to sold out venues in Europe and Japan.

“He was king of the hill in Chicago from the late 1950s into the 1970s and even the 80s as a live artist,” said Bates.

But he got less national and international attention than some other blues musicians because he wasn’t a big promoter.

“He preferred to go out and play and go back and sleep in his own bed,” said Bates. “He was not a show business guy.”

Rush won a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Recording in 1999 for “Any Place I’m Going,” and he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1984.

In one of his final appearances on stage at the Chicago Blues Festival in 2016, Rush watched beneath a black Stetson hat from a wheelchair as he was honoured by the city of Chicago, according to the Chicago Tribune.

He is survived by his wife Masaki Rush, eight children and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren, according to a family statement.

The Associated Press