James Lewis Carter Ford: When his fifth wife left him, she left him a guitar and that’s when Ford learned how to play. Different sources report different ages for when this happened with some citing he was 58 and others saying 75. Either way, he was no spring chicken when he started pickin’. Being a native of Mississippi, he of course taught himself guitar so that he could play Delta Blues. He was discovered in 1995 by Matthew Johnson of Fat Possum Records and released five albums from 1997 to 2008. He released his first album at the age of 77.

Wes Montgomery: At the age of 20 newlywed, Wes heard Charlie Christian for the first time. The very next day, he went out and got his own guitar and spent the next year or so trying to play like Christian. Having taught himself to play, he was soon playing in clubs as a twenty-year-old newbie. By day he worked as a welder at a milk company, but by night, he was out playing, imitating those Charlie Christian solos. A few years later in 1948, jazz musician Leo Hampton was on tour with a stop in Indy where he heard Wes play and so happened to be looking for a guitarist.
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