There’s something about a slow sip of good Kentucky bourbon that feels a lot like the low hum of a John Lee Hooker riff – unhurried, deep in the chest, and full of stories most folks never get told. Now those two worlds have finally come together the way they always should have.
The family of the man they called the King of the Boogie just released something special: four different eight-year-old, single-barrel, cask-strength bourbons, each one built around one of the Gibson guitars John Lee Hooker leaned on for sixty years. They’re calling the set “Strings of Legacy: Kentucky Bourbon Collection,” and every bottle is a straight-from-the-barrel tribute to the wood and steel that carried his voice around the world.
Four guitars. Four chapters. One hell of a story in every pour.
Image credit: John Lee Hooker Legacy Spirits
Start with the Gibson ES-335. If you ever watched Hooker live, you know that red semi-hollow body was glued to him for decades. He’d stand there in that wide-brim hat, foot stomping like a freight train, making that guitar cry and moan in ways nobody else ever figured out. The bourbon that carries its name has that same electric edge – bright up front, then it settles in and grabs you somewhere behind the ribs. Hooker’s grandson Glenn Thomas still lights up talking about it: “I’m in awe of the sound of his ES-335 and the electrifying edge of his raw blues. He knew how to make that guitar sing—and bend notes so deep, you feel them in your soul.”
Image credit: John Lee Hooker Legacy Spirits
Then there’s the Les Paul Goldtop. Heavy, mean, and proud of it. When Hooker wanted to turn the volume up and remind everybody who owned the room, that was the axe he reached for. The single barrel they matched to it drinks big and bold – the kind of pour that stands up in a rocks glass and dares you to take another sip. Thomas says it brings back the memory of his grandfather’s “unwavering integrity and that raw, captivating authority.” You can almost hear the crowd roar when that gold top caught the stage lights.
Image credit: John Lee Hooker Legacy Spirits
The Gibson SJ-200 is different – quieter, warmer, the one he played at home when the touring buses were parked and the only audience was family. Big jumbo body, deep as a Mississippi night. The bourbon tied to that guitar is the one you save for the back porch after the grill cools down. It’s got that slow Southern hug Thomas remembers from growing up: “his deep, Southern, soulful voice often filled our home.” One taste and you’re right there with him.
Image credit: John Lee Hooker Legacy Spirits
Last comes the Epiphone Zephyr, the archtop he beat the hell out of in smoky Delta juke joints long before the world knew his name. This is the roots bottle – raw, close to the ground, full of the sweat and grit that started everything. “This single barrel takes us on a journey back to our roots,” Thomas says. “It’s a taste of where the story began, and a part of my family’s history.”
All four are distilled in Bardstown, aged eight years, and bottled at whatever proof the barrel gives them – no watering down, no chill-filtering, no compromises. Just like Hooker played it.
This isn’t the first time the family has put the old man’s spirit in a bottle. Their Boogie Chillen’ Bourbon 1948 – named after the 1948 hit that changed everything – came out swinging less than a year ago and has already stacked up awards faster than most brands do in a decade. The new Strings of Legacy set is the follow-up nobody saw coming, and it’s done in partnership with Gibson itself. When the guitar company that built those legendary instruments says they’re proud to be part of it, you know it’s the real thing.
John Lee Hooker never did slow down. Hit his seventies and somehow got bigger – selling out arenas, cutting albums with kids half his age, still stomping that foot until the day he left us in 2001. The man understood that real blues isn’t just music; it’s a feeling that refuses to die. Pour one of these bourbons neat, drop the needle on “Boom Boom” or “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer,” and you’ll swear he’s still in the room.
Supplies are tight. Four single barrels don’t stretch far. If the idea of owning a piece of this history sounds good, get yourself on the waitlist at jlhlegacyspirits.com before the word spreads any further.
Because some legends don’t fade out. Sometimes they just change barrels.
