Bman's Blues Report

John Kay (born Joachim Fritz Krauledat, 12 April 1944, Tilsit then Germany, today Russia) is a German-Canadian singer, songwriter and guitarist known as the frontman of Steppenwolf. Kay has lived since 1990 in Franklin, Tennessee. In the Evacuation of East Prussia in early 1945, in harsh winter conditions, his mother first had to flee with the baby boy from the advancing Soviet troops. In 1948, the two also fled from Arnstadt in the East German Soviet occupation zone to resettle in Hanover, West Germany (as recounted in his song "Renegade" on the album Steppenwolf Seven). Located in the British occupation zone, teen aged Joachim, suffering from eyesight problems, listened to music broadcast by the British Forces Broadcasting Service before his family moved to Canada in 1958. He joined a blues rock and folk music group known as The Sparrows in 1965, which had moderate success in Canada before moving to California in the USA, augmenting its line-up and changing its name to Step...