Michael De Jong (January 22, 1945 – March 10, 2018) was a Dutch–American blues guitarist and singer songwriter. In the early days when he played with the Michael De Jong Band his music was influenced by Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Jimmy Reed, 1950s blues and rockabilly. Later he played (mostly solo) intimate songs with a guitar and his hoarse voice. He wrote about his struggle with life, about women ("Gods masterpiece"), love and the decay of society. De Jong's father, Gerben "Gep" De Jong (1919 – 1994) was a Dutchman who fled the Netherlands during World War II. In France his father married a French Basque woman, at that time De Jong was born. After the War, they lived in The Netherlands until the family emigrated to the United States in 1950. From the age of five De Jong grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he ended up as the foreign outsider. When he was six years old he joined the church choir and he never stopped singing. His first performance was at this age: he sang "Ave Maria" in the boys church choir. In contradiction of this, he spent his ninth birthday in a youth institution for setting his school on fire. The reason for this: in front of his schoolmates he was blamed to be a bad Catholic, because his parents didn't donate enough money to the church. De Jong was caught early, otherwise he would have burned down the church, the vicarage and the monastery as well, he claimed. At the age of thirteen De Jong started playing the guitar without taking any lessons. This happened after seeing a concert by Johnny Cash: "That's what I wanna do." Five years later he started his first band The Nightwalkers, which backed Bobby Bare who shortly thereafter became successful with "The All American Boy" and the "Detroit City". More information...
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