Solomon Burke

They don't come any stranger or more talented than Solomon Burke. Even his name confers a certain authority, and that's even before you meet this mountain of a man in all his suited and booted glory. And he is glorious, talking about everything from his 21 children, to his mortuary business, about making perfect fried chicken (and selling it to his fellow performers at Harlem's Apollo Theater), to getting late night phone calls from John Lee Hooker. This 66-year-young performer, raised by a grandmother who was a medium, brings sanctified soulfulness and a sense of righteousness to the rock canon, all wrapped in a truly wicked laugh and ermine robes.