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American guitarist, songwriter and inventor (1915–2009)
the musician

Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, was an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid body electric guitar, and his prototype, called the Log, served as inspiration for the Gibson Les Paul. Paul taught himself how to play guitar, and while he is mainly known for jazz and popular music, he had an early career in country music. In the 1950s, he and his wife, singer and guitarist Mary Ford, recorded numerous records, selling millions of copies. Paul is credited with many recording innovations. His early experiments with overdubbing (also known as sound on sound), delay effects such as tape delay, phasing, and multitrack recording were among the first to attract widespread attention. His licks, trills, chording sequences, fretting techniques, and timing set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired many guitarists of the present day. Among his many honors, Paul is one of a handful of artists with a permanent exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is prominently named by the music museum on its website as an "architect" and a "key inductee" with Sam Phillips and Alan Freed. Paul is the only inductee in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Paul was born Lester William Polsfuss in Waukesha, Wisconsin, to George His only sibling, Ralph, was seven years older. Paul's mother was related to the founders of Milwaukee's Valentin Blatz Brewing Company and the makers of the Stutz automobile. His parents divorced when he was a child. His mother simplified their Prussian family name first to Polfuss, then to Polfus, although Les Paul never legally changed his name. Before taking the stage name Les Paul, he performed as Red Hot Red and Rhubarb Red. At the age of eight, Paul began playing the harmonica. After learning the piano, he switched to the banjo and guitar. During this time, Paul invented a neck worn harmonica holder, which allowed him to play both sides of the harmonica, hands free, while performing on the banjo and guitar. Les Paul's hands free design is still widely manufactured today. By age thirteen, Paul was performing semi professionally as a country music singer, guitarist, and harmonica player. While playing at Waukesha area drive ins and roadhouses, Paul began his first experiment with sound. Wanting to make his acoustic guitar heard by more people at the local venues, he wired a phonograph needle to his guitar and connected it to a radio speaker. As a teen Paul experimented with sustain by using a 2 foot piece of rail from a nearby train line. At age seventeen, Paul played with Rube Tronson's Texas Cowboys, and soon after he dropped out of high school to team up with Sunny Joe Wolverton's Radio Band in St. Louis, Missouri, on KMOX.

In 1940, Les Paul revisited his experiments with the train rail. This time he created a similar prototype instrument, a one off solid body electric guitar known as "The Log", which was manufactured utilizing a common construction material often referred as a “4x4 stud post”, which provided a unique neck thru design. The “stud post” (a 4” x 4” section of Douglas Fir) was then equipped with a crude bridge and an electromagnetic pickup, neck and strings. The Log was constructed by Paul after hours in the New York City Epiphone guitar factory, and is one of the first solid body electric guitars. For the sake of appearance, he attached the body of an Epiphone hollow body guitar sawn lengthwise with The Log in the middle. This solved his two main problems: feedback, as the acoustic body no longer resonated with the amplified sound, and sustain, as the energy of the strings was not dissipated in generating sound through the guitar body. These instruments were constantly being improved and modified over the years, and Paul continued to use them in his recordings even after the development of his eponymous Gibson model. Paul approached the Gibson Guitar Corporation with his idea of a solid body electric guitar in 1941, The guitar went on sale in 1952. Paul continued to make design suggestions. In 1960, sales of the original Les Paul model had dropped, so a more modernistic model was introduced (today called the SG), but then still bearing the Les Paul name. Not liking the new look and severe problems with the strength of the body and neck, made Paul dissatisfied with this new Gibson guitar. This, and a pending divorce from Mary Ford, led to Paul ending his endorsement and use of his name on Gibson guitars from 1964 until 1966, by which time his divorce was completed. Paul continued to suggest technical improvements, although they were not always successful commercially. In 1962, Paul was issued , for a pickup in which the coil was integrated into the bridge. In the mid 1940s, he introduced an aluminum guitar with the tuning mechanisms below the bridge. As it had no headstock, and the string attachments were at the nut, it was the first "headless" guitar. Unfortunately, Paul's guitar was so sensitive to the heat from stage lights that it would not keep tune. However, he used it for several of his hit recordings. This style was further developed by others, most successfully Ned Steinberger. A less expensive version of the Les Paul guitar is manufactured for Gibson's Epiphone brand.

Paul hosted a 15 minute radio program, The Les Paul Show, on NBC Radio in 1950, featuring his trio (himself, Ford and rhythm player Eddie Stapleton) and his electronics. The program was recorded from their home and with gentle humor between Paul and Ford bridging musical selections, some of which had already been successful on records, some of which anticipated the couple's recordings, and many of which presented re interpretations of such jazz and pop selections as "In the Mood", "Little Rock Getaway", "Brazil", and "Tiger Rag". Many of these shows survive and are available from various sources. When Paul used magnetic tape, he could take his recording equipment on tour, making episodes for his fifteen minute radio show in a hotel room. The show appeared on television a few years later with the same format, but excluding the trio and retitled 'Les Paul & Mary Ford at Home with "Vaya Con Dios" as the theme song. Sponsored by Warner–Lambert's Listerine mouthwash, it was aired on NBC television during 1954–1955, and then was syndicated until 1960. The five minute show, consisting of the performance of only one or two songs, aired five times a day, five days a week, and therefore was used as a brief interlude or fill in for programming schedules. Since Paul created the entire show himself, including audio and video, he maintained the original recordings and was in the process of restoring them to current quality standards until his death. During his radio shows, Paul introduced the fictional "Les Paulverizer" device, which multiplies anything fed into it, such as a guitar sound or a voice. It was Paul's way of explaining how his single guitar could be multiplied to become a group of guitars. The device even became the subject of comedy, with Ford multiplying herself and her vacuum cleaner with it so she could finish the housework faster. Later, Paul created a real Les Paulverizer that he attached to his guitar. The invention allowed Paul to access pre recorded layers of songs during live performances so he could replicate his recorded sound on stage.

In 1965, Paul went into semi retirement, although he did return to his studio occasionally. He and Ford had divorced at the end of 1964 after she became tired of touring. One of Paul's most recognizable recordings from then through the mid 1970s was an album for London Records/Phase 4 Stereo, Les Paul Now (1968), on which he updated some of his earlier hits. Paul played the initial guitar track, and George Barnes laid down the additional tracks while Paul engineered in his home studio. He also recorded two albums, Chester and Lester (1976) and Guitar Monsters (1978), for RCA Victor, comprising a meld of jazz and country improvisation with guitar virtuoso Chet Atkins, backed by some of Nashville's celebrated studio musicians. In 1969 Paul produced the album Poe Through the Glass Prism for RCA. The album featured songs based on Edgar Allan Poe's writing by the northeastern Pennsylvania band the Glass Prism. The album produced a single titled "The Raven" that appeared on Billboard's Hot 100. As years progressed Paul played at slower tempos with a large pick that was easier to hold in his arthritic hand. In 2006, at the age of 90, he won two Grammy Awards at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards for his album Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played. He also performed every Monday night at Manhattan's Iridium Jazz Club with guitarist Lou Pallo, bassist Paul Nowinski (and later, Nicki Parrott), and guitarist Frank Vignola and for a few years, pianist John Colianni. Paul, Pallo and Nowinski also performed at Fat Tuesdays. Composer Richard Stein sued Paul for plagiarism, charging that Paul's "Johnny (is the Boy for Me)" was taken from Stein's 1937 song "Sanie cu zurgălăi" (Romanian for "Sleigh with Bells"). In 2000, a cover version of "Johnny" by Belgian musical group Vaya Con Dios that credited Paul prompted another action by the Romanian Musical Performing and Mechanical Rights Society.

Les Paul married Virginia Webb in 1937. They had two children, Les Paul Jr. (Rusty) (1941–2015), and Gene (1944), who was named after actor songwriter Gene Lockhart. After getting divorced in 1949, Paul married Mary Ford (born Iris Colleen Summers). The best man and matron of honor were the parents of guitarist Steve Miller, whose family was from Milwaukee. Paul was Miller's godfather and his first guitar teacher. Ford gave birth to their first child on November 30, 1954, but the girl was born prematurely and died when she was four days old. and after their divorce Ford lived there until her death in 1977. In 1995, Paul established the Les Paul Foundation, which was designed to remain dormant until his death. The Les Paul Foundation aims to inspire innovative and creative thinking by sharing the legacy of Les Paul through support of music education, recording, innovation, and medical research related to hearing. The Foundation established the Les Paul Innovation Award in 1991 and the Les Paul Spirit Award in 2016.

On August 12, 2009, Paul died of complications from pneumonia at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, New York. After hearing about his death, many musicians commented on his importance. Slash called him "vibrant and full of positive energy", while Richie Sambora called him a "revolutionary in the music business". The Edge said, "His legacy as a musician and inventor will live on and his influence on rock and roll will never be forgotten." On August 21, 2009, he was buried in Prairie Home Cemetery, Waukesha, Wisconsin.

A few of Les Paul's many awards are listed below. In 2007, he was given the National Medal of Arts from U. S. President George W. Bush. Paul was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (2005) for his development of the solid body electric guitar. In 1988, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by guitarist Jeff Beck, who said, "I've copied more licks from Les Paul than I'd like to admit." He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (2005), the Big Band & Jazz Hall of Fame (1990), the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame (1996), and the New Jersey Hall of Fame (2010). Two of his songs entered the Grammy Hall of Fame: "How High the Moon" and "Vaya Con Dios". In 1976, he and Chet Atkins received the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental. In 2004, he received an Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in Engineering and a Lifetime Achievement in Music Education from the Wisconsin Foundation for School Music. In 2009, Paul was named one of the top ten electric guitarists of all time by Time magazine. Two years later he was named the eighteenth greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. During the same year, his name was added to the Nashville Walk of Fame.

In July 2005, a 90th birthday tribute concert was held for Les Paul at Carnegie Hall in New York City. After performances by Steve Miller, Peter Frampton, Jose Feliciano, and a number of others, Paul was presented with a commemorative guitar from the Gibson Guitar Corporation. Three years later, at a tribute concert at the State Theater in Cleveland, Ohio, he received the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's American Music Masters Award. On June 9, 2015, a yearlong celebration of Paul's 100th birthday kicked off in Times Square with performances by musicians including Steve Miller, Jose Feliciano, and Neal Schon, a memorabilia exhibition, and a proclamation from the Les Paul Foundation declaring June 9 as Les Paul Day. In 2007, the biographical film Les Paul Chasing Sound was aired on the public television series American Masters. The premier showing was held at Milwaukee's Downer Theater in conjunction with a concert Paul put on for the Waukesha County Historical Society & Museum. The film contained interviews with Les Paul, performances by his trio on his 90th birthday, and interview commentary and performances by other musicians. In June 2008, an exhibit showcasing Paul's legacy and featuring items from his personal collection opened at Discovery World in Milwaukee. Paul played a concert in Milwaukee to coincide with the opening of the exhibit. Paul's hometown of Waukesha, Wisconsin, opened a permanent exhibit titled "The Les Paul Experience" at the Waukesha County Museum in June 2013. The exhibit features artifacts on loan from the Les Paul Foundation. A self guided tour of Les Paul's Waukesha was created by the Les Paul Foundation. A permanent Les Paul exhibit is also located at the Mahwah Historical Museum. Other museums that include Les Paul are the Museum of Making Music in Phoenix and the Grammy Museum in Newark, NJ. In 2009, the concert film Les Paul Live in New York was aired on public television showing Les Paul performing on his 90th birthday at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York and in archival clips.

Paul was also a prolific composer. Some of the songs he wrote were "Song in Blue", "Cryin'", "Hip Billy Boogie", "Suspicion", "Mandolino", "Magic Melody", "Don'cha Hear Them Bells", "The Kangaroo", "Big Eyed Gal", "Deep in the Blues", "All I Need is You", "Take a Warning", "Mammy's Boogie", "Up And At 'Em", "Pacific Breeze", "Golden Sands", "Hawaiian Charms", "Mountain Railroad", "Move Along, Baby (Don't Waste My Time)", "Dry My Tears", "I Don't Want You No More", "Doing the Town", "Les' Blues", "No Strings Attached", "Subterfuge", "Lament For Strings", "Five Alarm Fire", "You Can't Be Fit as a Fiddle (When You're Tight as a Drum)", and "Walkin' and Whistlin' Blues".