John Dee Holeman was born on April 4, 1929 in Hillsborough, North Carolina. He grew up on a cotton farm and learned how to play the guitar at a young age from his father and uncles. He learned an old finger-picking style known as "piedmont blues", a style of guitar playing native to North Carolina and made famous by artists like Blind Boy Fuller, Elizabeth Cotton, and Etta Baker. Now, at almost eighty-six years old, John Dee can still play the blues as well as ever.