The Jeff Healey Band

Blinded by a rare form of eye cancer as a baby, Jeff Healey defied the odds to become one of the most talented hard rock guitarists of the late 1980s. Learning to play at just three-years-old, he developed a style of sitting down with the instrument laid across his lap and went on to form The Jeff Healey Band with bassist Joe Rockman and drummer Tom Stephen in 1985, performing blues-rock standards in local Toronto bars. Discovered by guitar legends Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert Collins, they signed with Arista for their major label debut See the Light (1988) and scored huge hits with the singles "Angel Eyes" and "Hideaway" (both nominated for Grammys). The band appeared in and recorded the soundtrack for the Patrick Swayze film Road House (1989) and produced the albums Hell to Pay (1990) and Feel This (1995) as Healey's searing guitar playing gradually became the stuff of legend. He recorded a cover of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" with George Harrison and played alongside the likes of Dire Straits, Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy before teaching himself trumpet and releasing the traditional jazz albums Among Friends (2002) and It's Tight Like That (2006). Healey died in March 2008 from cancer aged 41 with his final posthumous album Mess of Blues (2009) proving a fitting farewell.