King was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. He is the son of
blues musician Tabby Thomas. His early recordings were released under the
name Chris Thomas. He has won awards including "Album of the Year" for
both Grammy Award and Country Music Awards.
King has sold more than 10
million records in the United States. He is featured playing the part of
Tommy Johnson in the Coen brothers' 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou?.
He is also featured in Down from the Mountain and More Music from Ray
soundtracks.
In June 2021, King's book “The Blues: The Authentic Narrative of My Music
And Culture” was published by Chicago Review Press. The book posits that
the Blues and related genres derive from the urban and urbane Creole
culture of New Orleans. He further argues that the received narrative of
blues’ genesis in the Mississippi Delta is both incorrect and that the
narrative derives from erasure of New Orleans Creole
accomplishments.
King is a pioneer of rap/blues fusion. He conceived the first
sample-based blues concept album in the early 1990s by writing and
producing the first all-rap/blues album for RCA Records titled 21st
Century Blues… from da Hood.
As an entrepreneur King took control of his master recordings in the
early 1990s, forming 21st Century Blues Records. He also established a
publishing company, Young Blues Rebel, LLC. 21st Century Records signed
the New Orleans Ninth Ward rap/blues duo the 21C-B-Boyz and the London,
England-based NuBlues, to 21st Century Blues Records in 2003.
King's acting career includes prominent roles in several films,
including two music-related films. In the Oscar-winning film Ray he
plays band leader and blues guitar player Lowell Fulson. During
production he collaborated with Ray Charles in scoring the film. In O
Brother, Where Art Thou?, he portrays a skilled blues guitarist who
claims he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his skill on
guitar. The character is based on blues musicians Tommy Johnson and
Robert Johnson, both of whom have been linked to selling their soul to
the devil at a rural Mississippi crossroads.
King also accompanies the film's band the Soggy Bottom Boys on
guitar; his rendition of Skip James's Hard Time Killing Floor Blues was
recorded live during filming and included on the film's Grammy
Award-winning soundtrack.
King also starred in the Wim Wenders art house film The Soul of a Man,
as Blind Willie Johnson and Kill Switch as Detective Storm with Steven
Seagal. (Wikipedia)
