In a Minneapolis dive bar in the mid-1990s, a 14-year-old who looked like a high school freshman stepped on stage and sang with the gritty, weathered voice of a 50-year-old blues veteran. Record executives who had flown across the country to see him signed him on the spot. Jonny Lang, born John Gordon Langseth Jr. in Fargo, North Dakota, in 1981, picked up the guitar at 12, took lessons from Ted Larsen of the local Bad Medicine Blues Band, and within months had joined the group, which was renamed Kid Jonny Lang and the Big Bang. By 14 he had relocated to Minneapolis and released the independent album Smokin', and in 1996 A&M Records came calling.

This episode traces the multi-platinum run of Lie to Me in 1997 and the Grammy-nominated Wander This World in 1998, his cameo in Blues Brothers 2000, and his 1999 White House performance for Pr ...