Picture a six-foot-six, 250-plus-pound heavyweight sparring with Joe Louis, then walking away from boxing to become the hidden architect of modern rock and roll. This episode traces how Willie Dixon, born in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1915 into a family of fourteen children, became the bridge between acoustic Delta blues and the global explosion of rock, writing more than 500 songs and engineering the post-war Chicago blues sound from behind the scenes at Chess Records.

We start with a mother who spoke in rhymes, a teenage stint on Mississippi prison farms, and the gospel quintet where a carpenter named Theo Phelps taught him how a bass line anchors a band. We follow his 1936 move to Chicago, the 1937 Illinois Golden Gloves novice heavyweight title, the pay dispute that ended his boxing career after four pro fights, the one-string tin-can bass Leonard Caston built for him, and the ten months in prison he served for refusing induction as a conscientious objector who would not fight for a segregated nation. Then we dig into his studio work for Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Bo Diddley, his scouting of Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, and Magic Sam at Cobra Records, and the lawsuits that forced the industry to pay.

• How slapping an upright bass created the percussive backbeat that became rock’s rhythmic blueprint
• Why he wrote swaggering songs for Muddy Waters and menacing ones for Howlin’ Wolf
• The British Invasion bands who built empires on his catalog, including a 1964 Rolling Stones UK number one
• His 1977 suit against Chess’ publishing arm and the 1987 “Whole Lotta Love” settlement with Led Zeppelin
• The Blues Heaven Foundation, his 1989 Grammy, his 1992 death, and his 1994 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction