John Mayall, legendary blues guitarist and founder of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, died on Monday at the age of 90, Vanity Fair reports.

Born in Macclesfield, England in 1933, Mayall taught himself to play the piano, guitars and harmonica as a kid. After graduating from the Manchester College of Art, he maintained a side hustle playing with local musicians. In 1963, he founded the Bluesbreakers with drummer Peter Ward, bassist John McVie (who would later join Fleetwood Mac) and guitarist Bernie Watson. Together they helped bring the sound of American Delta blues — artists like Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Elmore James — to English venues and audiences. In 1965, Eric Clapton, who’d quit the Yardbirds, joined the lineup. “The blues fitted in with the early ’60s, the social way of life at the time,” Mayall explained to The Guardian in 2014. “Things were changing anyway – in fashion, art, political views. … It happened here, rather than in America, because at the time, the scene in America was racially segregated – over there, never the twain would meet. In Europe, however – not just England – the Black blues began to be heard by an audience that was not listening to them in America. We discovered Elmore James, Freddie King, JB Lenoir, and they spoke to our feelings, our life stories and that was it. Hooked.”