John Mayall didn't just play the blues -- he launched the careers of Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and Mick Taylor. His Bluesbreakers were the farm team for British blues-rock: a kid would join, spend a year or two learning the repertoire, and then leave to form Fleetwood Mac or join the Rolling Stones or become a solo icon. Mayall just kept finding new talent and moving forward.

He was a graphic artist from Manchester who fell in love with American blues records and taught himself guitar, harmonica, and keyboards. The Bluesbreakers' 1966 album with Eric Clapton -- the 'Beano' album, named after the comic Clapton was reading on the cover -- is one of the foundational documents of British blues. Room to Move, from the acoustic Turning Point album, became his signature.

He moved to California in the late 1960s and never really left. Still touring into his 90s, still recording, still finding young musicians to mentor. The godfather of British blues. The Bluesbreakers' alumni list reads like a who's-who of classic rock.

Mayall himself is the constant -- the man who loved the blues enough to spend his whole life playing them.