Bob Hite Caricature

Bob Hite Caricature, illustrated here in 1970 at home, age 27.

Hite was the co-lead vocalist of the American blues-rock band Canned Heat. His nickname was “The Bear”, and was recognized by his booming gritty voice.

Canned Heat is an American rock band that was formed in Los Angeles in 1965. The group has been noted for its interpretations of blues material and for its efforts to promote interest in this type of music and its original artists. It was launched by two blues enthusiasts Alan Wilson and Bob Hite, who took the name from Tommy Johnson’s 1928 “Canned Heat Blues”, a song about an alcoholic who had desperately turned to drinking Sterno, generically called “canned heat”.
After appearances at the Monterey and Woodstock festivals at the end of the 1960s, the band acquired worldwide fame with a lineup consisting of Hite (vocals), Wilson (guitar, harmonica and vocals), Henry Vestine and later Harvey Mandel (lead guitar), Larry Taylor (bass), and Adolfo de la Parra (drums).

Two of their songs — “Going Up the Country” and “On the Road Again” — became international hits. “Going Up the Country” was a remake of the Henry Thomas song “Bull Doze Blues”, recorded in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1927. “On the Road Again” was a remake of the 1953 Floyd Jones song of the same name.

In May 1970, Canned Heat backed John Lee Hooker on the album Hooker ‘n Heat released in early 1971.

On April 5, 1981, during a break between sets at The Palomino Club in North Hollywood, Hite was handed a vial of heroin by a fan. He snorted it and fell into a coma, after which others unsuccessfully attempted to revive him with a large dose of cocaine.
A group of roadies put Hite in a van and drove him to bandmate Fito de la Parra’s home, where he died.

He was 38.

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