Chains, Chords and Grace: The Redemption of John Lee Hooker, Jr
The Not Old - Better Show
Paul Vogelzang
5 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 25 June 2025
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
🎸 From prison cell to pulpit.
🎤 From opening for his father to praying with Keith Richards.
🙏 From blues to grace.
Rev. John Lee Hooker, Jr. has lived a life most wouldn’t believe—if it weren’t all true.
Born into blues royalty as the son of John Lee Hooker, he seemed destined for the stage. But addiction, crime, and incarceration rewrote the script… until faith and purpose gave him a new one.
In this episode of The Not Old Better Show, I sat down with Rev. Hooker to talk about:
- 🔁 Returning to Soledad Prison—first to perform, then to serve time, then again as a prison chaplain.
- 🎶 Escaping the shadow of the blues and creating a new sound based in redemption, not regret.
- ❤️ His journey back to family, fatherhood, and legacy.
- 🕊 What it truly means to start over after 50.
This isn’t just a music story. It’s a human story. One of resilience, recovery, and the reality that life doesn’t end at 50—it deepens.
💥 As Rev. Hooker says: “I used to glamorize the blues. Now I testify.”
🎧 Listen to this unforgettable conversation at: https://apple.co/3FAbebT
#Redemption #MusicLegacy #Over50 #Transformation #NotOldBetter #LifeAfterAddiction
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In the book of Daniel of the fourth chapter, King Nebuchadnezzly is warned of a dream by the prophet of God. |
| 0:09.3 | Welcome to the not old better show, Smithsonian Associates interview series on radio and podcast. |
| 0:15.7 | The show covering all things health, wellness, culture, and more. |
| 0:19.8 | The show for all of us who aren't old, we're better. |
| 0:22.9 | Each week, we'll interview superstars, experts, and ordinary people, |
| 0:27.1 | doing extraordinary things, all related to this wonderful experience of getting better, |
| 0:32.6 | not just older. |
| 0:34.1 | Now, here's your host, the award-winning Paul Vogelszahn. |
| 0:38.0 | Just a few minutes of your undivided attention, then I'm about to preach. |
| 0:46.1 | Welcome to The Not Old Better Show on radio and podcast where age is just a number. |
| 0:52.9 | And the stories only get better with time. |
| 0:56.3 | I'm Paul Vogel saying, and today's episode is brought to you by Factor Forms, Daily Greens. |
| 1:03.0 | Preach! You have our undivided attention. |
| 1:07.5 | Today's guest is no stranger to the spotlight and to preaching or the shadows. |
| 1:13.2 | Reverend John Lee Hooker, Jr., who's given us permission to play his music, and this is |
| 1:19.1 | Heaven Rules. It's new music from Reverend John Lee Hooker. Of course, John Lee Hooker is the son |
| 1:26.1 | of blues legend John Lee Hooker. He brings us a story as rich as the |
| 1:31.4 | blues and as moving as a Sunday sermon. From singing beside his father as a teenager to |
| 1:38.3 | serving time in prison to finding salvation in the same places he once lived as an inmate. |
| 1:45.6 | Reverend Hooker's story is one of grit, grace, and a second act that defies expectation. |
| 1:52.1 | He's been shot, stabbed, jailed, nominated for Grammys, |
| 1:56.9 | and stood toe to toe with Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones and still have the nerve to ask him, |
... |
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