Did The Father of The Blues Really Sell His Soul to The Devil?

Roku has what you need to make your college home away from home feel more like your own. Make your dorm the place to be with Roku TV or bring a Roku streaming stick to easily access all your favorite free and premium content like iHeartRadio. Stream your favorite playlist with the Roku vibe setting smart light strips to sync your music to millions of colors and make your dorm feel more like you. Make your dorm the place to be with Roku TV, streaming players and smart lights.

Head to Roku.com or your favorite retailer to deck out your dorm. Here's a little secret. Most smartphone deals aren't that exciting. To be honest, they're barely worth mentioning. But then there's AT&T and their best deals. Those are quite exciting. They're the kind of deals that are really worth talking about. Like their deal on the new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6. With this amazing deal, you can trade in your eligible smartphone for a new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 any year, any condition. The deal's so good, it will have you shouting from the rooftops. So get yourself down to street level and learn how to snag the new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 on AT&T.

And maybe grab a ladder on the way home. AT&T. Connecting changes everything. Requires trade-in of Galaxy S Note or Z Series smartphone. Limited time offer. 256 gigabytes for zero dollars. Additional fees, terms and restrictions apply. See att.com slash Samsung or visit an AT&T store for details.

Saying yes to summertime fun just got a whole lot easier. Make sure to download the PayPal app. An account with PayPal is required to send and receive money. Redeem points for cash and other options. Terms apply. Tired of wandering the aisles at Walgreens trying to find the best deals? Well, we've got something that'll make your shopping experience a whole lot sweeter. Introducing Drop. The app that rewards you with free gift cards just for doing your everyday shopping.

Whether it's groceries, toiletries or your favorite snacks. With Drop, every purchase earns you points towards fantastic rewards. Download the Drop app now.

Use code Drop55 when you sign up to get five dollars in points. Deciding on what to listen to is hard. Using Zumo to stream music from iHeart90's radio is easy.

Or play iHeart Country or Hip Hop Beats. Your choice all for free. Stream easy with Zumo Play. Get live and on-demand entertainment with no logins, no signups, no accounts, no hassle.

This August have movie night with Anaconda and Seraphim Falls starring Liam Neeson and Pierce Brosnan. Streaming free on Zumo Play. Go to play.zumo.com now. Life is hard.

Zumo is easy. And we continue with our American Stories. Up next, a story out of Mississippi where we broadcast in Oxford about an hour south of Memphis. And this story is about the King of the Delta Blues. We're talking about Robert Johnson. Much of his life is shrouded in lore and mystery. Here to separate fact from fiction is Robert's grandson.

Let's get into the story. Robert Johnson was born May the 8th 1911 in Hazelhurst, Mississippi which is a town in Copiah County, Mississippi. And his mother's name was Miss Julia Dobbs. Julia had about five kids. Robert was the youngest and she was married to a guy named Charlie Dobbs. Charlie Dobbs was not Robert's dad, okay.

Charlie Dobbs was a man that got in trouble in Hazelhurst because you know the racial tension and everything and Mr. Charlie was uh he was one of those that I'm okay I'm gonna do what I do. And so he had to get out of town because he wanted to do what he wanted to do. And he left Julia and the kids there. Well while they were there a man by the name of Noah Johnson started you know calling them courtship.

Noah Johnson is Robert's biological father, okay. And the family she took the family from Hazelhurst moved to the Delta area and you know considered to be a sharecropper. And from sun up to sundown you were working the fields for little or no money. You were living on the land on plantations where they still were plantations even though slavery was old it was still plantations. And they had what they called a commissary. The way they would pay people for working in the fields was to it was real slick. You let them come and buy food from the commissary that they had worked for all along. So all you're doing is feeding them.

You weren't really paying them anything. Now his mother was messing with her. She had another guy by the end.

She was pretty promiscuous when it came to relations. And the man that she was with at that time tried to get my granddaddy to work in the fields you know from a kid on up to his teenage year. He refused and the man used to beat on my granddad and whooping trying to make him work.

So Robert took up and left. He didn't want to live the type of life. From there he was a rambler. You know he can remember one of his songs you know rambling man blues you know traveling riverside blues. I mean he was he was always on the go you know living from home to home and not not seeing a stable family. He would get on the jump at the you know the box cars and on the train.

Hey ain't that nothing empty? Jump jump in yeah good town. He'd jump out from town you know right there in the town. Come back on go keep that's how he traveled really a lot in the Delta.

You know I mean he was what they would say footloose and fancy free okay. He talked about different relationships having affairs. You know he said he had women's in Vicksburg clean on into Tennessee. Must have had one in Frypoint Mississippi up in the Delta.

He said but his Frypoint rider jumps all over him. Got all them women. So he had women in every Mississippi zip code. He had women and he talked about those towns and those cities really towns they were less little towns. On highway 61 that was a route.

Highway 61 from Vicksburg on up to Memphis. Little towns he had women. So that he was just kind of battling with the man you know the instincts of being a man. Yeah and he got to a point where he didn't really value a woman's worth but he didn't want to be like that. He even got married you know he got married and his wife got pregnant. They were uh in their teens early teens really that was before he came to Hayes Hurston.

He said I want to live a normal life. He tried it okay so he met a lady named Virginia Travis. He married her got pregnant and everything and during childbirth she died of course and the child died as well. You know while she was gone to to her grandmother's home to have birth give birth to the child Robert picked up the guitar again and said okay watch she's on there I can kind of pick up my old habit again you know.

So he started playing the guitar and everything going to different towns and uh he had a plan where he was gonna be right in town by the time she was getting ready to give birth and when he got there her and the baby had died. And her parent her family blamed Robert Johnson for both devils. Said if you weren't playing this old devil's music then Virginia and that baby would still be alive and there you go again.

Pressure depression torment because not only did my wife and child die but y'all blaming me because I'm singing the blues. There go the drinking the womanizing again I mean it was just a cycle and every time he was trying to break that cycle something went even with my with my grandmother. He asked for my grandmother's hand in marriage asked her dad you know I would like to marry Virgin Maid that's my grandmother's name Virgin Maid and my great granddad said nope no daughter of mine's gonna marry anybody that sang the devil music.

There you go again. Wanted to be with my dad wanted to spend time with my dad my dad I don't remember seeing his dad two times both times he would come to my great-granddad's home who raised my dad and he would try to come in to see the boy and my great-granddad said nope as far as you can go you know but he my dad looking out the window and he's seeing his dad give his granddad money he just took a little boy for me you know that happened twice other than that he wasn't he was kept away from his son his daughter and wife died everybody blaming him and so that's I mean just it just tormented him really and the life changes that he went through and the struggle that really is what led him to want to pick up the guitar. He would go and peeping in the juke joints and seeing this guy named Charlie Patton and Willie Brown and other guys playing in those juke joints and he took a liking to the guitar and you know he would go in there when they take a break he'd go in there pick the guitar up and try to play it and everything and and just be kind of hold a tune I'm talking about this the artist will say look guys with y'all please get that guitar from that man they kick them out say look boy give me that guitar get out of here all he's doing is just noising the people just get that guitar from it I would say okay I'm gonna show y'all I'm gonna show you and he left and he he was determined from that point on he was determined that he was going to learn how to play that guitar.

Legend has it that Robert Johnson learned how to play the guitar by going to the crossroads in the Delta meeting up with the devil they would say I will give you this talent if you will give me your soul you will become famous I need your soul so he's supposed to make a deal with the devil to sell his soul okay but in all actuality the truth to the myth is you cannot make a deal with the devil to sell your soul because you don't own your soul when we come back more of Robert Johnson's story as told by Stephen Johnson his grandson here on Our American Stories. Roku has what you need to make your college home away from home feel more like your own make your dorm the place to be with Roku TV or bring a Roku streaming stick to easily access all your favorite free and premium content like iHeartRadio stream your favorite playlist with the Roku vibe setting smart light strips to sync your music to millions of colors and make your dorm feel more like you make your dorm the place to be with Roku TV streaming players and smart lights head to roku.com or your favorite retailer to deck out your dorm my brother-in-law died suddenly and now my sister and her kids have to sell their home that's why I told my husband we could not put off getting life insurance any longer an agent offered us a 10-year $500,000 policy for nearly $50 a month then we called select quote select quote found us identical coverage for only $19 a month a savings of $369 a year whether you need a $500,000 policy or a five million dollar policy select quote could save you more than 50 on term life insurance for your free quote go to selectquote.com selectquote.com that's selectquote.com selectquote we shop you save full details on example policies at selectquote.com slash commercials time is a luxury for us especially if you're a mom that's why we need a skincare routine that's easy fast and gives us results plus what if your products had thousands of five-star reviews were natural and affordable well say hello to dime beauty dime beauty is clean high-end skincare that is affordable and it really works not sure where to start i highly recommend the work system it's everything you need in one powerful package take out the guesswork with a proven routine that includes a gentle yet effective cleanser a super skin toner two incredible serums and two luxurious moisturizers see what everyone is raving about from serum sets to the always sold out retinol alternative tbt cream you'll find your perfect skincare match dime has over two million happy customers and their product reviews are literally five stars love your skin again go to dimebeautyco.com for 20 off with code get dime that's dimebeautyco.com code get dime for 20 off is getting gas at chevron burning a hole in your wallet get the drop app with drop you can earn free gift cards just by filling up your tank download drop now use code drop seven seven to instantly receive five dollars in points deciding on what to listen to is hard using zumo to stream music from iHeart90s radio is easy or play iHeart country or hip-hop beats your choice all for free stream easy with zumo play get live and on-demand entertainment with no logins no signups no accounts no hassle this august have movie night with anaconda and seraphim fall starring liam neeson and paul neeson and pierce brosnan streaming free on zumo play go to play.zumo.com now life is hard zumo is easy and we return to our american stories and the final portion of our story on blues legend robert johnson when we last left off stephen johnson was telling us about his grandfather's trip to the crossroads where he supposedly sold his soul to the devil to learn how to play the guitar that's not the real story though let's return to stephen johnson the truth is you cannot make a deal with the devil to sell your soul because you don't own your soul and now being a preacher that i am the bible says all souls belong to god and the soul that sins shall die so what that tells me is that we have choices in life that we have to make whether they be good or bad and those choices will be what we have to answer to when we sit on that on that seat on that judgment seat it's not that our soul don't belong to us we don't we don't own it okay so he couldn't sell something he didn't know now uh the song if you would listen to that song people pay attention to it crossroad blues i went down to the crossroad fell down on my knees and again i went down to the crossroad fell down on my knees that's totally contradicted to what the myth says about them selling the soul robbins at a crossroad in his life he was seeking to do right he wanted to be be you know wanted to be say he wanted to do something different live a different type of life he didn't want to be the womanizing alcoholic drinking you know man that he was you know so that's the crossword that i believe he went to and only god knows you know how that ended up but people would rather believe the myth because of them going from zero to 100 past 100 in two to three years and then the truth that actually happened yeah was what during the time from 1930 to about 1932 robert left the delta okay and came back to hazerhurst mississippi searching for noah johnson his biological father and then searching for his biological father he connected with a blues artist named ike zimmerman about five miles south of hazerhurst in a little town called beauregard in that time ike was known as one of the best blues players in the southern area he actually started hanging out with ike and he started uh living with him and i mean he was at ike home so frequently ike's daughter said ike's daughter said uh he had they asked his dad uh dad is is they call him rl robert leroy johnson is rl our brother he's at the house just as much as they were he was sleeping on the floor and he followed like follow like and then there would be times when uh during that time i mentoring there was a cemetery right across the uh street from ike's home and ike and robert would go out there at night that's a spooky they would go out of the cemetery at night sit on these stone graves facing each other lick for lick you know and i was telling okay rob you can sound just as terrible as you want to nobody gonna say nothing to you out here they're not gonna kick you out here i don't know if i get kicked out of the cemetery and so they they you know they he continued to mentor and teach you know showing and they would go to different juke joints in the kapai county area this happened for like two years in a row you know just two years straight so rob said okay i think i got this down now so he went back to the depth he saw some of them saying guys get out of there boy you just know us in the people rob said just just just let me give me the guitar let me show you what i'm working with he he got the guitar and they say he started playing it they say somehow mouth dropped and willie brown mouth dropped anybody heard the people just throwing it was like is this real is this the same guy that couldn't do nothing okay robert now hey you you learned how to play this thing too quick where did you how did you you're on you had to do something rob you went to the you went to sold your soul to the devil learn how to play that guitar now i don't know if he played with that or you know it's my belief that he he said okay believe what you want to be hey that's what you want to think think it but i know you know he knew what he knew where his talent came from and i often compare that to michael jordan the goat of basketball and they're not saying he sold his soul to the devil to learn how to play basketball it comes from practice practice practice and more practice you know driven granddaddy was driven to learn how to play that guitar so talent come from hard work and dedication not from selling your soul he put those hours in and they paid off he ended up going to dallas and he recorded those 29 songs we don't Chicago dust my broom hot tamale in the red hot when i first heard that song i was like six years old seven years old and i remembered like it was yesterday because i'm watching cartoon right and tom and jay were chasing out each other and that song hot tamale in the red hot yeah we got it for sale i mean and they come to find out when i got to be a teenager that my my granddaddy was singing it that one and sweet home chicago are my two favorite because of the history behind it i call sweet home chicago the blues national anthem you know he set the stamina i'm saying wow my granddad we were actually blessed to uh talk with two guys that actually played with my granddad honey boy edwards and mister lockwood robert lockwood jr mister honey boy told me that uh my granddad other than liking his whiskey and women he loved to play the guitar a lot of time with his back turned to the audience because he didn't want them to pick up what he was doing it sounded like he was playing two or three different guitars at the same time and mr lockwood said the same thing but he said steve a lot of folks said i think that your granddaddy walked around broke that's the only man that i knew back then walked around like with a hundred dollars in his pocket at a time and back then and that was a lot of money he said he would keep money in his pocket and he was very you know particular about his look i'm talking about he'd be the sharpest man in town although they try to portray him as being dope broke and just trying to scrap how do you get to canada and not have anything you know what i'm saying music started getting out and uh they were having an event of a con hong it was called from gospel to swing and the guy they're putting on the event john hammond senior he heard about robert and he sent his son down to mississippi to look for robert when he got here robert had passed about a week or two before they found me but john hammond senior was so intrigued by robert's music they played on the phonograph and the people just i mean they were just like he was just like he was on stage performing that was a real big moment in history to me that you consider his music so good you played on the phonogram and people would still be applauding it but what we found out was right Robert johnson and honey boy edward was performing in a juke joint right outside of greenwood and uh the juke joint owner robert was having an affair with his wife right before robert johnson got ready to do his first set they brought him a jar of whiskey that was open so honey boy said he slapped he told him told my dad and family said mr clark i slapped that whiskey out your daddy's hand he said he looked at me he said boy as long as you live don't you never slap no good whiskey out of my hand like that and he said rob you don't drink from an open container like that man you don't know what's going on you just let me do don't you worry about that okay time went on here come another job miss 100 boy said he got ready slapping say my granddaddy gave me that look oh i wish you would slap that whiskey out my hand so he ended up drinking it and it was laced it had poison in it they said that uh during that night he was just howling you know the poison wasn't the thing that killed him immune system shut down and he contracted pneumonia and that's what happened he died from pneumonia but one of the things that amazes me about it was when he found his body they found a note by and that note read king jesus king of jerusalem i know my redeemer liveth and he shall call my soul from the grave again that that dispels the myth to me because to me he's saying i know my redeemer living and i've accepted him as my safe you know so the myth is squashed okay the story of death love and sin here on our american stories roku has what you need to make your college home away from home feel more like your own make your dorm the place to be with roku tv or bring a roku streaming stick to easily access all your favorite free and premium content like i heart radio stream your favorite playlist with the roku vibe setting smart light strips to sync your music to millions of colors and make your dorm feel more like you make your dorm the place to be with roku tv streaming players and smart lights head to roku.com or your favorite retailer to deck out your dorm is getting gas at shell burning a hole in your wallet what if i told you you can easily earn cash back while you fill up introducing drop the app that turns every fill up into a reward with drop you'll earn points to get free gift cards every time you fill up your tank download drop and use code drop eight eight to instantly receive five dollars in points to jump start your savings journey don't miss out on turning your gas expenses into something rewarding high five casino is a social casino with real prizes and big vegas hits at highfivecasino.com the hottest games right from vegas and all winnings go straight to your bank account hundreds of exclusive games free daily rewards and come back to get free coins every four hours only at highfivecasino.com high five casino is a social casino no purchase necessary void where prohibited play responsibly terms and conditions apply see website for details at high the number five casino.com high five casino deciding on what to listen to is hard using zumo to stream music from i heart 90s radio is easy or play i heart country or hip-hop beats your choice all for free stream easy with zumo play get live and on-demand entertainment with no logins no signups no accounts no hassle this august have movie night with anaconda and seraphim fall starring liam nissan and pierce brosnan streaming free on zumo play go to play.zumo.com now life is hard zumo is easy zinn nicotine pouches deliver nicotine satisfaction anywhere anytime which means zinn pairs well with you your personality your schedule and your spontaneity zinn fits easily into your bag pocket and into your life because it's smoke-free hands-free and hassle-free so the only person who will know you have a zim pouch in is you visit zinn.com or head to your local convenience store today to find yours in warning this product contains nicotine nicotine is an addictive chemical you