Drummer Sam Lay, who played with blues legends Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf and backed Bob Dylan when he went electric at the Newport Folk Festival, died Saturday at 85.
He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2015 as part of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and played on dozens of tracks for Chess Records.
”I always say this to explain Sam’s playing: Sam didn’t just play the drums, he sang the drums,” said Corky Siegel, the Chicago pianist and harmonica-playing leader of Corky Siegel’s Chamber Blues. “He just followed the music and just made it explode into ecstasy.”
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The death of Mr. Lay — who was living near Roosevelt Road and Laramie Avenue — was confirmed by Siegel and Alligator Records. He had experienced heart problems and was taken to a nursing home, Siegel said. He died shortly after arriving.
The record label said, “Lay has always been renowned for his trademark, hard-to-copy ‘double-shuffle’ — based on the double-time hand-clapping from his childhood church. In addition to his work with Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters, Lay was an original member of the hugely influential, racially integrated Paul Butterfield Blues Band, among the first groups to bring hard Chicago blues to the burgeoning rock and roll audience.”
“The reason the Butterfield Blues Band was as good as they were was all the players, but he was definitely behind it,” said Starr Sutherland, a producer of the 2017 documentary “Sam Lay in Bluesland.”
Countless other drummers admired him, Siegel said, including session drummer Jim Keltner, who played with members of the Beatles. Siegel said Keltner once told him “I don’t want to just sound like Sam, I want to be Sam.”
And Steve Smith of Journey once asked Siegel for an introduction to Mr. Lay to learn “what Sam is doing, how he is doing it and why he is doing it.”
After Mr. Lay received honors for his music in 2002, Alligator Records said Dylan sent him a telegram reading: “It’s so well-deserved. Walter, Wolf and Muddy, they must have known it, too — that you’re second to none — your flawless musicianship and unsurpassed timing, a maestro with the sticks and brushes.”
The Birmingham, Alabama, native first drew notice when he played drums in Cleveland in the 1950s, according to his biography from Alligator Records. After arriving in Chicago, he accompanied harmonica player Little Walter.
Mr. Lay drummed for Howlin’ Wolf on many songs, including “Killing Floor,” “The Red Rooster” and “300 Pounds of Joy.” And he played on “Fathers & Sons” — “Waters’ best-selling album on Chess,” Alligator Records said.
Mr. Lay also appeared in a documentary series produced by Martin Scorsese, “The History of the Blues,” which aired on PBS in 2003.
Though in failing health, he played in 2018 at the Chicago Blues Festival, said Siegel’s wife, Holly, a manager for Corky Siegel’s Chamber Blues.
“He just had this spirit that kept him going,” Sutherland said.
Mr. Lay is survived by his daughter, Debbie, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Funeral arrangements were pending, according to Alligator Records.
