After decades of rough going, 90-year-old blues legend Pinetop Perkins has finally gotten his act together

"He's had one arm sliced open in a bar brawl and the other broken in a collision with a train. He has performed his music at cockfights and played for a U.S. president. He has survived poverty, abuse, grief and alcoholism. He's an unsung forefather of rock 'n' roll and a living legend of the blues. As 90-year-old Pinetop Perkins is fond of saying, "I come up the hard way."

You can read the rest of the story here, but you should really find a copy of today's Tribune's Tempo section for the glorious color picture of Perkins and his fellow bluesman, Bob Stroger.