The bassist nobody saw in Animal House became a blues star

Look closely at the house-party band in National Lampoon's Animal House and the bassist is a young Robert Cray, uncredited. It is a funny footnote for a man who would go on to win five Grammy Awards.

Cray was born in 1953 in Columbus, Georgia, where his father was stationed at Fort Benning, and he formed his first band, The One-Way Street, as a student in Newport News, Virginia. By twenty he had seen Albert Collins, Freddie King and Muddy Waters live, and that was enough to make up his mind. He started his own band and played college towns on the West Coast, later working in Eugene, Oregon, with Curtis Salgado in the Cray-Hawks.

The records came slowly. Who's Been Talkin' appeared in 1980, and two albums for HighTone, Bad Influence and False Accusations, won him a reputation in Europe as a strong live act. In 1985 he made Showdown! alongside his hero Albert Collins and Johnny Copeland. Then came Strong Persuader, produced by Dennis Walker and released in 1986 on Mercury. It earned a Grammy, and its crossover single “Smoking Gun” made his name known well beyond the blues crowd. Keith Richards invited him into Chuck Berry's backing band for a 1987 film, and by the late 1980s he was opening for Eric Clapton before selling out bigger rooms on his own.

The honours piled up quietly afterwards. He played on John Lee Hooker records, duetted with B.B. King, and shared a stage in August 1990 with Clapton, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan and Stevie Ray Vaughan, the night of Vaughan's last performance. Fender builds two signature Cray Stratocasters, and he went into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2011. Songs like “Right Next Door (Because Of Me)” and “Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark” show what he does best: a clean, unhurried guitar and a voice that sounds as if it has lived inside every line.