 " Cross Road Blues " ( more commonly known as " Crossroads " ) is a blues song written and recorded by American blues artist Robert Johnson in 1936 . Johnson performed it as a solo piece with his vocal and acoustic slide guitar in the Delta blues @-@ style . The song has become part of the Robert Johnson mythology as referring to the place where he supposedly sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for his musical talents , although the lyrics do not contain any specific references . 
