Jeff Healey
Norman Jeffrey "Jeff" Healey was a Canadian musician born in 1966. At the age of eight months, he was stricken with retinoblastoma, a rare ocular cancer. He underwent surgery to remove both eyes, which rendered him blind for life. Jeff took up guitar at age 3, developing a unique playing technique in which he lay the instrument flat across his lap, with his left hand palm-down over the fretboard, resulting in a characteristic richness and fluidity that would become his signature style. As a teenager, he began establishing a name for himself by playing coffeehouses and bars around Toronto.
In 1989, after a chance discovery by Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Jeff Healey Band signed with Arista Records and launched their debut album, spawning the John Hiatt-written single "Angel Eyes," which peaked at number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Healey also appeared in the So Bad It's Good Patrick Swayze movie Road House, as a blind white guy who plays a mean blues guitar. The band went on to release several more blues albums. They toured extensively and developed a loyal following.
Later on, Jeff got married and started a family, as well as releasing a few jazz albums with his side project, the Jazz Wizards. Sadly, he succumbed to a recurrence of the cancer in 2008.
With the Jeff Healey Band
- See the Light (1988)
- Hell to Pay (1990)
- Feel This (1992)
- Cover to Cover (1995)
- Get Me Some (2000)
Jeff Healey solo
- Among Friends (2002)
- Live at Healey's (2003)
- Adventures in Jazzland (2004)
- It's Tight Like That (2006)
- Mess of Blues (2008)
- Songs From The Road (2009)
- Last Call (2010)
He also has five live albums and six compilation albums.
- Blind Musician: See Inspirationally Disabled below.
- Canada, Eh?
- Happily Adopted: He never knew his natural parents, but the couple who adopted him were supportive and encouraging.
- Inspirationally Disabled: Lost his sight at the age of one, began learning guitar at three, and ended up developing a distinctive style of playing which eventually made him a star.
- Jazz
- Rock and Roll
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