Detroit’s Apex Bar is Where John Lee Hooker Played His First Gig In 1943

All you need to know about the Apex Bar is John Lee Hooker and Little Sonny will be forever linked to the curved yellow brick walls that look exactly as they did when Hooker played his first gig there back in 1943. “I would never be on time,” Hooker recalled of his Apex days. “I always would be late comin’ in.” The bartender, Willa, always had the same thing to say to him, he recalled. “Boom-boom — you late again.’ Every night: ‘Boom-boom — you late again.’ I said ‘Hmm, that’s a song!” Some years later, he committed “Boom Boom” to wax on Vee-Jay Records. One wonders if Willa was still around to hear it. It became one of Hooker’s signature tunes.