Josh White - Later Life

Later Life

From the mid-1950s until his death in Manhasset, New York in 1969 of heart disease, White primarily performed in concert halls, nightclubs, and folk music venues and festivals around the world, and in 1961 starred in the Josh White Show for the Granada Television network in the United Kingdom. White's blacklisting in the television industry in America was finally broken in 1963, when President John F. Kennedy invited him to appear on the national CBS Television's civil rights special "Dinner with the President." Later that year he was seen again on national television performing for the masses on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the historical March on Washington. In 1964, White gave a Command Performance for the Prime Minister of Canada, Lester Pearson; and in January 1965 he performed at the Presidential Inauguration of Lyndon Baines Johnson. In his final years, he would make American television appearances on The Merv Griffin Show, Hugh Hefner's Playboy's Penthouse and Hootenanny, among others. Meanwhile, he starred in two Josh White Concert Specials for national Swedish television in 1962 and 1967; starred in the 1965 ITV Network Special Heart Song: Josh White in the United Kingdom (with guest artists Julie Felix and Alexis Korner); while also guest starring on Canada's CBC-TV's Let's Sing Out with Oscar Brand in 1967; and making his final television appearance in May 1969 on the Canadian CBC-TV variety show One More Time.

UK guitarist/entrepreneur Ivor Mairants worked with White to create The Josh White Guitar Method (Boosey & Hawkes) in 1956. It was an extremely influential book for the fledgling UK blues/folk scene and was the first blues guitar instruction book ever published. UK guitarist John Renbourn and American guitarist Stefan Grossman (who was living in the UK at the time) have cited it as a critical influence on their playing.