Roy Buchanan was born Leroy Buchanan in Ozark, Arkansas on September 23, 1939. When he was two, Roy's family moved to Pixley, California, a tiny San Joaquin Valley farming town about 50 miles north of Bakersfield. Roy's father Bill found work in Pixley as a farm laborer, though Roy would later tell people that his father was a preacher.

At nine, Roy's parents bought him a lap steel guitar and lessons from the local traveling music teacher, Mrs. Presher. In spite of Mrs. Presher's efforts over three years, Roy learned his lessons by ear and never learned to read music. Not only was Roy able to learn his lessons by ear, he was also able to learn songs from the radio. He learned them so well that he was hired at the age of twelve by a local band, the Waw Keen Valley Boys, to play lap steel in their band. Not long after, in about 1952, Roy picked up his first standard guitar and began learning to play it to songs he heard on the radio.

By the time Roy was sixteen, his interest in music was far greater than his interest in high school, so he left home in Pixley to live with his older brother and sister in Los Angeles. A local agent, Bill Orwig, organized a band called the Heartbeats, with Roy playing guitar and Spencer Dryden, later with the Jefferson Airplane and the New Riders of the Purple Sage, playing the drums. The Heatbeats had a brief appearance in a small movie of the time called Rock, Pretty Baby, but Roy Buchanan's fate would change when Orwig left the Heartbeats stranded in Oklahoma City.

Roy took a job playing guitar for Oklahoma Bandstand in Tulsa, but when Dale Hawkins came through town, Roy joined his band and went back with him to Hawkins' home base of Shreveport, Louisiana. The two toured together for three years, and Roy's first appearance on a commercial recording came on Chess Records' recording of Dale Hawkins' hit "My Babe," in 1958.

In 1961, while on a trip to Toronto with Dale Hawkins, Roy met Ronnie Hawkins, Dale's Arkansas cousin. Ronnie lured Roy away from Dale long enough for Roy to pass along some tricks of the trade to the young guitarist that Ronnie was grooming for his band, Robbie Robertson. (Robertson and other members of Ronnie Hawkins' band The Hawks later became known as The Band.)

Later that year, in the summer of 1961, Roy married the former Judy Owens, and the couple settled in the suburbs around Washington, D.C. Roy spent most of the next decade playing local gigs in or within easy reach of the D.C. area. Local gigs, however, didn't pay well enough for Roy and Judy to support their growing family, so, in 1969, Roy put down his guitar and enrolled in a local barber college with the hope of learning a trade that could better support his family. His stint as a barber didn't last long. By 1970 he was back on the D.C. club scene, this time for a gig with singer Danny Denver at the Crossroads bar. It was during this gig that Roy Buchanan would be "discovered."

Articles in the Washington Star, then the Washington Post, led to a Rolling Stone reprint of the Post article. John Adams, a producer for WNET in New York, saw the article in Rolling Stone, and, after confirming that Roy was the real thing, he arranged to make a documentary about Roy called "Introducing Roy Buchanan." Once the documentary aired in November of 1971, Roy, while far from a household name, was at least no longer unknown.

In the following year he recorded his first two albums for Polydor, Roy Buchanan and Second Album. Both records were well received by critics but achieved only modest sales by Polydor's standards. Two other studio albums for Polydor, That's What I'm Here For and In the Beginning, recorded in 1973 and '74 respectively, were less successful critically and did no better in record stores. A live recording made for Polydor in late 1974 and released as Live Stock remains one of Roy's best recordings. It also fulfilled his obligation to Polydor.

Roy's next three albums came from Atlantic Records, where Roy had had a standing offer from Ahmet Ertegun since a 1972 Carnegie Hall performance. A Street Called Straight, Loading Zone, and You're Not Alone each had their moments, but, like Roy's last studio efforts at Polydor, they were uneven and did not bring in the sales that Atlantic had hoped for.

The early 80s saw a lull in Roy's career. He was without a recording contract, and on his tours he was often left to play with various pick-up bands. In the mid 80s, Bruce Iglauer, founder of Alligator Records, saw a couple of Roy's shows in Toronto and Chicago and signed him to a record deal. When a Guitar Plays the Blues, his first Alligator record, was released in 1985. It stayed on the Billboard charts for 13 weeks and earned a Grammy nomination for Blues Album of the Year. A second Alligator album, Dancing on the Edge, followed in 1986, and in 1987 a third, Hot Wires.

On the night of August 14, 1988 Roy was arrested for public intoxication and taken to the Fairfax County (Virginia) Adult Detention Center. Official accounts say that Roy hanged himself in his cell by his shirt. Some of his family and friends believe that the official account doesn't tell the whole story.

Info was taken from the Web Site of www.roybuchanan.com...check it out!