Blues Drummer Sam Lay Dies at 86; Played With Dylan, Waters


Video: We remember drummer, vocalist, blues legend and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Sam Lay, on “Chicago Tonight.” (Produced by Jay Smith)


CHICAGO (AP) — Sam Lay, a Chicago blues drummer and vocalist who played with Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, has died at age 86.

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Lay died Jan. 29 of natural causes in Chicago, according to Alligator Records.

Lay, known for wearing a cape and carrying a walking stick, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2015 as part of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

“Words can’t describe it if you like blues like I do,” Lay told the South Bend Tribune that year, referring to the band. “I enjoyed the moment of it, and everybody that was in that band, I enjoyed. I learned a lot from everybody in there, and they claim they learned a lot from me.”

Alligator Records said Lay was known for his “trademark, hard-to-copy ‘double-shuffle’” drumming, based on double-time hand-clapping in his childhood church.

Lay, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, played professionally in Cleveland in the mid-1950s before moving to Chicago, the record label said.

In 1969, he played drums on “Fathers & Sons,” Waters’ best-selling record on Chess Records.

Lay backed up Dylan on drums in 1965 at the Newport Folk Festival. It caused a stir in the crowd because Dylan played an electric guitar and had turned to a rock sound.


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