Born in Spokane, Washington, and raised in New Orleans and Los Angeles, Kenny Wayne Spruell was a child prodigy on piano. His father, a preacher, encouraged him to play gospel and steer clear of the "Devil's music", but Wayne was always drawn to boogie-woogie and the blues. By the late 1960s he was playing club dates in L.A. and working with Billy Preston, Sly Stone and the Doobie Brothers. He moved to Vancouver in the 1970s, performing in clubs throughout Western Canada. His first three CDs Alive and Loose (1994), Blues Boss Boogie (1996) and 88th & Jump Street (2002) were nominated for a Juno Award, while his fourth disc, Let It Loose, won a Juno in 2006. An Old Rock on a Roll came out five years later on Stony Plain Records.