Alan Christie Wilson (July 4, 1943 – September 3, 1970), nicknamed "Blind Owl", was an American musician, best known as the co-founder, leader, co-lead singer, and primary composer of the blues band Canned Heat. He sang and played harmonica and guitar with the group live and on recordings. Wilson was the lead singer for the group's two biggest U.S. hit singles: "On the Road Again" and "Going Up the Country". Early years Alan Christie Wilson was born to John (Jack) Wilson (1914–2000), a bricklayer, and Shirley Bingham (1922–2011), an artist on July 4, 1943, and grew up in the Boston suburb of Arlington, Massachusetts. He had an older sister Darrell; and was of English, Scottish, and German descent. His parents divorced when he was 3 and both later remarried. Wilson was highly intelligent, setting him apart from his peers. As a result he was often bullied by his schoolmates. His father Jack enjoyed ham radio operation. Alan became involved as a child but soon turned his interest to music after his stepmother Barbara bought him a jazz record. Some of Wilson's first efforts at performing music publicly came during his teen years when he learned trombone, teaching himself the instrumental parts from the aforementioned jazz record. Later he formed a jazz ensemble with other musically oriented friends from school called Crescent City Hot Five. Wilson was into traditional New Orleans music, and later, Classical European and Indian music. He was also on the high school tennis team. Eventually Wilson quit trombone. It was around this same time that Wilson developed a fascination with blues music after a friend played a Muddy Waters record for him, The Best of Muddy Waters. Inspired by Little Walter, he took up harmonica, and soon after the acoustic guitar after hearing a John Lee Hooker record. Some of Wilson's other major influences included Skip James, Robert Johnson, Son House, Charley Patton, Tommy Johnson, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and Bukka White. After graduating from Arlington High School in 1961, he majored in music at Boston University. His academics earned him a National Merit Scholarship and the F.E. Thompson Scholarship Fund from the Town of Arlington. Wilson developed into a dedicated student of early blues, writing a number of articles for the Broadside of Boston newspaper and the folk-revival magazine Little Sandy Review, including a piece on bluesman Robert Pete Williams. Anxious to play music rather