Blues' Son Sets

Frank "Son" Seals didn't just sing the blues, he lived it.

The gravelly voiced singer-guitarist, whose scorching solos and funky songs helped define the blues sound of the 1970s, died Monday in Chicago of complications from diabetes. He was 62.

Seals mined his own past hardships and failed relationships for inspiration, turning his anguish into searing tunes. On the power of his intensely ferocious guitar-playing and blunt vocal delivery, he had established himself as one of the Windy City's premiere bluesmen.

Seals also helped launch Alligator Records--widely regarded as the label for the Chicago Blues--with a string of eight albums in the early '70s beginning with 1973's The Son Seals Blues Band.

Seals toured incessantly through the '80s and '90s, first in the States and then overseas in European clubs and on the festival circuit. He lived out of a motor home that shuttled him from gig to gig.

Dubbed the Big City Bluesman, Seals earned critical kudos for his work, scoring a Grammy nomination in 1980 for the live album Blues Deluxe and winning W.C. Handy Blues Awards in 1985, 1987 and 2001.

Beset by deteriorating health and plain bad luck, Seals struggled through his final decade.

His ex-wife shot him in the jaw in 1997, forcing Seals to undergo months of reconstructive surgery. Two years later, doctors had to amputate his leg below the knee as a complication of diabetes. Aside from his medical woes, Seals' prized custom guitar was stolen and a fire gutted his motor home after a recent concert in Miami.

"The guy faced the most unbelievably life-shattering experiences, and you never heard him complain about it," trumpet player Dan Rabinovitz, a backing member of Seals' band from 1990 to 1997, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Born in Osceola, Arkansas, on Aug. 14, 1942, Seals was the youngest of 13 children born. His father ran a juke joint, the Dipsy Doodle, and "Little Son" quickly developed an ear for music. He began banging the drums before moving to the guitar, where his taskmaster father would force him to play the same chords over and over until, as Seals once recounted, "I committed them to my soul."

By the time he was a teenager, Seals had hit the road, playing with the likes of Robert Nighthawk, Earl Hooker and Albert King, the latter of whom served as an important mentor.

Seals arrived in Chicago in 1971 and began playing with such local legends as Junior Wells.

He also met Bruce Iglauer, the founder of Alligator Records, who signed Seals to a record deal and became his manager. The duo had a rocky relationship--Seals briefly left the label in the mid-'80s and recorded two albums for Telarc before returning in the '90s.

Seals' high-energy music made an impact beyond the genre. Rock jam band Phish covered Seals' "Funky Bitch" and often invited him onstage as a guest. Phish's guitarist, Trey Anastasio, collaborated with Seals on a remake of "Funky Bitch" for the bluesman's 2000 album, Lettin' Go.

Despite the loss of his leg, declining health and myriad off-stage problems, Seals kept playing up until two months ago.

"Anybody who knew my dad and followed his career of 40 years knew blues was like a second life to him," son Rodney Seals told the Sun-Times. "I just believe that he felt every song he sung. It came from his heart. To be true to what you do, you've got to speak what you feel. That's what he did."

Son Seals leaves behind a sister, Katherine Sims of Chicago, and 14 children.