information:extraction
Devil legend

According to legend, as a young man living on a plantation in rural Mississippi, Johnson had a tremendous desire to become a great blues musician. One of the legends often told says that Johnson was instructed to take his guitar to a crossroad near Dockery Plantation at midnight. (There are claims for other sites as the location of the crossroads.) There he was met by a large black man (the Devil) who took the guitar and tuned it. The Devil played a few songs and then returned the guitar to Johnson, giving him mastery of the instrument. This story of a deal with the Devil at the crossroads mirrors the legend of Faust. In exchange for his soul, Johnson was able to create the blues for which he became famous.

This story was originally associated with Delta blues musician Tommy Johnson, to whom Robert Johnson was unrelated. Tommy Johnson, who grew up near the Dockery Plantation and learned the blues from Charlie Patton and Willie Brown, first claimed to have sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in exchange for his mastery of the guitar.