Link Wray

Rock'n'roll musician Link Wray reigns supreme as one of the best, most important, influential, and innovative guitarists to emerge from the 1950's. Wray was the creator of the power-chord and was one of the first musicians to experiment with both distortion and the burning fuzz-tone guitar sound in his instrumental recordings; his harsh and raw, yet potent and effective simple guitar style inspired such rock music genres as heavy metal, punk, thrash, and alternative rock. Link primarily recorded instrumentals during his peak years in the 1950's and 1960's, but also did some singing as well in his distinctively rough'n'growly voice. He was born as Fred Lincoln Wray, Jr. on March 2, 1929 in Dunn, North Carolina. He was the second son of Fred and Lillian Mae and was three quarters Shawnee Indian. Wray was taught at age eight how to play guitar from a black man named Hambone. Link served as an Army medic during the Korean war and contracted tuberculosis during his tour of duty (he lost a l