Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. (November 20, 1941 – June 6, 2019), better known by his stage name Dr. John, was an American singer and songwriter. His music combined New Orleans blues, jazz, funk, and R&B.
As a young man, Rebennack was interested in New Orleans voodoo, and in Los Angeles he developed the idea of the Dr. John persona based on the life of Dr. John, a Senegalese prince, conjure man, herb doctor, and spiritual healer who came to New Orleans from Haiti. This free man of color lived on Bayou Road and claimed to have 15 wives and oven 50 children. He kept an assortment of snakes and lizards, along with embalmed scorpions and animal and human skulls, and sold gris-gris, voodoo amulets which supposedly protect the wearer from harm. Gris-Gris became the name of Dr. John's debut album, released in January 1968, representing his own form of "voodoo medicine".
Not sure how seriously he took voodoo but it became part of his stage persona along with some spectacularly colourful clothes and show.
Dr. John & Eric Clapton - Right Place, Wrong Time 1996
Dr. John - Such a Night
Dr. John - Swanee River Boogie (new upload)
Dr. John - Didn't He Ramble ; Closer Walk With Thee
Dr. John - Goin' Back To New Orleans (Video)
Dr John "I Walk on Gilded Splinters" Live in Brooklyn
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