Imagine helping to invent a musical genre, then a few years later driving a taxi and running a clothing store because the industry has moved on without you. That was the reality for Jimmy Rogers, the guitarist who anchored Muddy Waters’ first Chicago band. Born James A. Lane on June 3, 1924 near Ruleville, Mississippi, Rogers grew up moving through Atlanta and Memphis, started on harmonica alongside childhood friend Snooky Pryor, picked up guitar as a teenager, played with Robert Lockwood Jr. in East St. Louis and reached Chicago in the mid-1940s, where his 1946 debut recording was released with no credit under Memphis Slim’s name.

This episode traces how Rogers, Muddy Waters and Little Walter formed the trio that engineered the South Side Chicago blues style, earning the nickname the Headhunters for stealing gigs from house bands. We cover his 1950 Chess hit That’s All Right, his decision to stay in Muddy’s band until 1954, tracks like Chicago Bound, Rock This House and 1956’s Walking by Myself, and the lost decade when rock and roll pushed the originators aside and his store burned in the 1968 Chicago riots. The European blues revival pulled him back, leading to the 1977 reunion album I’m Ready, full-time touring by 1982, the albums Ludella and Bluebird, and the 1999 all-star album Blues Blues Blues.

• How the Great Migration and loud South Side clubs forced the Delta blues to plug in
• The mechanics of a cutting contest and how the Headhunters staged hostile takeovers of Chicago gigs
• Why Rogers kept his rhythm guitar role behind Muddy Waters even after scoring his own hit
• The backing band on Blues Blues Blues: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Taj Mahal, Lowell Fulson, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Jeff Healey and Stephen Stills
• Blues Hall of Fame induction in 1995, his death from colon cancer in Chicago in December 1997 at 73, son Jimmy D. Lane, and the 2016 Hall of Fame recognition of That’s All Right as a classic blues recording