Jeff Healey

Norman Jeffrey "Jeff" Healey was a Canadian musician born in 1966. At the age of eight months, he was stricken with retinoblastoma, a rare ocular cancer. He underwent surgery to remove both eyes, which rendered him blind for life. Jeff took up guitar at age 3, developing a unique playing technique in which he lay the instrument flat across his lap, with his left hand palm-down over the fretboard, resulting in a characteristic richness and fluidity that would become his signature style. As a teenager, he began establishing a name for himself by playing coffeehouses and bars around Toronto.

In 1989, after a chance discovery by Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Jeff Healey Band signed with Arista Records and launched their debut album, spawning the John Hiatt-written single "Angel Eyes," which peaked at number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Healey also appeared in the So Bad It's Good Patrick Swayze movie Road House, as a blind white guy who plays a mean blues guitar. The band went on to release several more blues albums. They toured extensively and developed a loyal following.

Later on, Jeff got married and started a family, as well as releasing a few jazz albums with his side project, the Jazz Wizards. Sadly, he succumbed to a recurrence of the cancer in 2008.

Discography

With the Jeff Healey Band

See the Light (1988)
Hell to Pay (1990)
Feel This (1992)
Cover to Cover (1995)
Get Me Some (2000)

Jeff Healey solo

Among Friends (2002)
Live at Healey's (2003)
Adventures in Jazzland (2004)
It's Tight Like That (2006)
Mess of Blues (2008)
Songs From The Road (2009)
Last Call (2010)

He also has five live albums and six compilation albums.

Jeff Healey provides examples of the following tropes:

Blind Musician: See Inspirationally Disabled below.
Canada, Eh?
Happily Adopted: He never knew his natural parents, but the couple who adopted him were supportive and encouraging.
Inspirationally Disabled: Lost his sight at the age of one, began learning guitar at three, and ended up developing a distinctive style of playing which eventually made him a star.
Jazz
Rock and Roll