After a lengthy battle with cancer, the multi-faceted Canadian guitar virtuoso Jeff Healey passed away at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Toronto on March 2, 2008.

Known first and foremost as a blues guitarist, Healey, who was robbed of his eyesight as a toddler due to a rare form of cancer, retino blastoma, first picked up the guitar at age three. As early as age six, Healey was playing professional gigs. By the late ‘80s, he’d formed his trio, the Jeff Healey Band, which was featured in the Patrick Swayze film Road House. In 1988, the band released the Grammy-nominated album See the Light.

After receiving a Juno Award in 1990 for Entertainer of the Year, Healey released two more rock-based albums before turning to what has been described as his “real love,” classic jazz from the ‘20s through to the ‘40s. Healey’s collection of 78-rpm records numbered in the tens-of-thousands and led him to another path in his career – as host of CBC Radio’s My Kinda Jazz. He would also later host a similar show on Toronto’s Jazz-FM. Sadly, Healey passed before the 2008 release of his first blues-rock album in years, Mess of Blues.

One of the most distinctive guitarists to ever play, Healey had played or shared the stage with dozens of notable musicians, including legends B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, George Harrison, Mark Knopfler and Jimmy Rogers. Noted for his wry sense of humour and his musical playfulness, Healey was able to cross different genres with ease and assurance. He will be greatly missed by music fans the world over.