DISGRACELAND: Robert Johnson – Voodoo, Delta Blues, Cursing God, and a Crossroads

Release Date: October 24, 2025
Host: Jake Brennan (Double Elvis Productions)
Special Cast: Lee Fields as Son House’s head

Episode Overview

This episode of DISGRACELAND plunges deep into the myth, tragedy, and lasting influence of blues legend Robert Johnson. Host Jake Brennan explores Johnson’s life story in a script that blends true crime, folklore, and raw music history, exposing the chaos, heartbreak, and supernatural rumors that have swirled around Johnson for nearly a century. From accusations of voodoo and “deals with the devil” to womanizing, cursing God, and the infamous crossroads myth, Brennan’s storytelling paints a gothic portrait of a man and an era in which music was both a tool of liberation and a supposed conduit for demonic influence.

Major Themes and Discussion Points

1. Robert Johnson’s Dark Legend and the Delta Blues World

• Johnson's persona is introduced as the walking embodiment of danger and seduction in 1930s Mississippi, simultaneously feared and desired in equal measure.
• Blues as “Devil’s Music”:
  • Set in the context of 1930s Southern America, blues music is considered a threat, its sexually charged lyrics and rawness leading the God-fearing to lock their doors except on Saturday nights (“the devil’s business”).
  • Quote: "Blues music was nothing more than trouble in 12 bars. Blues musicians were not to be messed with, doors locked, windows shut, shotguns cocked—except on Saturday nights." (11:37)

2. Childhood, Tragedy, and the Search for Power

• Johnson is described as “born under a bad sign,” his birth a product of uprooted, violent family circumstances.
• Early trauma: His wife Virginia Travis died in childbirth at 14, along with their baby, a tragedy that carved an irreparable hole in Johnson’s life and faith.
• Johnson’s stepfather was abusive; Robert dreams not of fieldwork, but of escape through music.
• Voodoo and Hoodoo: Johnson experiments with magic (goofer dust, mojo bags) not to kill, but to strike back at his abusive stepfather.

3. Cursing God and the Quest for Musical Mastery

• Johnson’s contempt for religion and God is a recurring theme; he sees the church as hypocrisy and the divine as a source of suffering.
  • Quote: “Robert told Ike flat out he hated God. For as much as he knew he was the devil.” (29:05)
• Robert turns instead to music and mentorship under Ike Zimmerman, practicing guitar at midnight in cemeteries and, legend has it, at the crossroads.

4. The Crossroads Myth and ‘Selling His Soul’

• After time with Zimmerman, Johnson returns “a changed man,” electrifying audiences with skills no one can explain.
• The “cutting heads” scene between Johnson and Son House is dramatized in this episode, with Lee Fields performing as the disembodied, cursing head of Son House—an allegory for Johnson surpassing his rivals.
  • Quote: "He rocked. He rolled. He played the rhythm and the melody, both parts at the same time, along with the bass part, too. He needed no accompaniment." (40:15)
• Brennan contextualizes the crossroads tale as essential blues folklore: “No one goes out of town one day to fuck off in the country and comes back the next as the greatest bluesman the Delta has ever seen without getting a leg out from Mr. Jake Leg himself—the devil." (44:54)

5. Recording History: Technique and Secrecy

• Johnson’s savvy is outlined during his first recording session in San Antonio; he turns his chair to face the wall to hide his unique guitar technique from the engineers:
  • Quote: “Robert Johnson was no dummy...He wasn’t about to let two white engineers he barely knew have a front row lesson on how to play guitar like Robert Johnson.” (53:48)
• This unorthodox position led inadvertently to the iconic “sound” of his records.

6. Notoriety, Womanizing, and Final Days

• With the release of his powerful and mysterious recordings, Johnson enjoys regional fame and doubles down on his “bad man” lifestyle—living fast, drinking hard, openly womanizing, and continuing to curse God.
  • Quote: “Robert worked women the way he worked the rails, as a means to an end. In this case, it was shelter from the storm.” (59:50)

7. Betrayal and Violent Death

• The host describes Johnson’s poisoning by the vengeful husband of Beatrice, his married lover, at the Three Forks juke. The poison (naphthalene from mothballs) was slipped into his liquor by Beatrice’s husband RD.
• Johnson died alone, agonizing, not as punishment from the devil for a Faustian bargain, but—for Brennan—because “Robert Johnson was the devil,” or, at least, that the devil was always present in the landscape of Johnson’s tragic world.
  • Quote: “There was no Faustian bargain that felled the bluesman...Robert Johnson did not make a deal with the devil. Robert Johnson was the devil.” (01:05:12)
• The episode closes with an exploration of how the “devil” haunted every aspect of Johnson’s story—sometimes as myth, sometimes as a metaphor for the South, racism, violence, and ambition.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Blues and Sin (11:37):
  “Blues music was nothing more than trouble in 12 bars. Blues musicians were not to be messed with, doors locked, windows shut, shotguns cocked—except on Saturday nights.”
• Virginia's Death (23:32):
  “The baby gave in and finally exited. The midwife held it in her arms. She looked to Virginia, who was now silent and still. The midwife knew it in an instant. She’d seen it before. Virginia Travis was dead. So too was her baby.”
• On Cutting Heads (41:30):
  “Cutting heads was the practice of one perpetrating bluesman showing up at another blues man’s gig...and then playing so well that the audience then wanted to hear the perpetrating blues man and only the perpetrating blues man, rendering the original bluesman...out of a job.”
• On Meeting the Devil at the Crossroads (44:54):
  “No one goes out of town one day to fuck off in the country and comes back the next as the greatest bluesman the Delta has ever seen without getting a leg out from Mr. Jake Leg himself—the devil.”
• On Recording Technique (53:48):
  “Robert Johnson was no dummy...He wasn’t about to let two white engineers he barely knew have a front row lesson on how to play guitar like Robert Johnson.”
• On the End (01:05:12):
  “There was no Faustian bargain that felled the bluesman...Robert Johnson did not make a deal with the devil. Robert Johnson was the devil.”

Timeline of Key Segments

• 11:37 – 16:00: Portrait of Greenwood, MS, and the “devil’s music” stigma
• 16:00 – 26:30: Childhood, family trauma, and Virginia’s death
• 29:05 – 34:30: Ike Zimmerman’s mentorship and graveyard guitar practice
• 40:15 – 45:10: The cutting heads tradition and Son House’s “beheading”
• 53:48 – 56:30: San Antonio recording session and Johnson’s recording innovations
• 59:50 – 01:02:10: Fame, womanizing, and cursing God; journey to final gigs
• 01:02:10 – 01:08:10: The poisoning at Three Forks, Johnson’s death, and the devil’s enduring presence

The DISGRACELAND Tone

Jake Brennan's narration is pulpy, evocative, and brash, mixing reverence for blues history with dark, noirish humor. The script weaves fact and folklore, refusing to clean up the messiness of Johnson’s story or sanitize its supernatural rumors. The episode aims not just to inform but to spook and fascinate—"music history like you’ve never heard it."

Final Reflection

This episode illuminates the mysteries and enduring cultural power of Robert Johnson—his otherworldly talent, his doomed life, and the myth he became. Brennan suggests that Johnson’s “deal with the devil” is less a contract than a metaphor for the Delta blues—the joy and curse of being an artist born under hard times in haunted lands.

For Listeners

If you’re interested in the tangled roots of American music, or if you want to know why Robert Johnson still haunts the crossroads of our culture, this episode is a must-listen. The story is as chilling as it is enlightening.