Canned Heat Adolfo Fito de la Parra

Born February 8, 1946

Happy birthday

[Tommy Johnson – Canned Heat Blues (1928) – where the band got its name]

Canned Heat began its set at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair on Saturday evening around 7:30 after the Incredible String Band and before Mountain.

Canned Heat Adolfo Fito de la Parra

Nickname band

I suppose we could call them the nickname band:

• Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson: guitar, harmonica, vocals
• Bob “The Bear” Hite: vocals, harmonica
• Harvey “The Snake” Mandel: guitar
• Larry “The Mole” Taylor: bass and…
• Adolpho “Fito” de la Parra: drums

Their set is not one of the most talked about sets that weekend. Unless you were there. And then you wonder why their performance isn’t ranked up next to all the many super sets.

Canned Heat Adolfo Fito de la Parra

More

Here’s 10 minutes and 46 seconds of great music by a great band: On the Road Again. 

Unfortunately for Canned Heat, death dealt them a horrible hand. Just 13 months later, Wilson died. Hite died in 1981.

Canned Heat Adolfo Fito de la Parra

Mexico

The band continued and Adolfo de la Parra continued on drums. Born in Mexico, he had played in several bands there before moving to Los Angeles in 1966. Fito’s first gig was December 1967 and he’s never left.

60th ANNIVERSARY TOUR DATES 1966-2026

As of 2026, the touring lineup of Canned Heat consists of:

• Adolfo – drums, vocals, (the only remaining member from the band’s classic late-1960s lineup).
• Dale Spalding – lead vocals, harmonica, rhythm guitar (joined in 2008 and is the band’s principal frontman).
• Jimmy Vivino – lead guitar, keyboards, vocals. Joined in 2021. Vivino is also well known as the longtime guitarist and music director from Conan O’Brien’s television bands.
• Rick Reed – bass (joined in 2019).
• John Paulus – guitar (performs with the band as an additional guitarist, depending on the tour).

In addition, Mark Teixeira has been serving as a live substitute drummer on some recent tours while de la Parra has reduced his onstage drumming duties, although de la Parra remains the band’s leader.

Canned Heat Adolfo Fito de la Parra

Livin’ the Blues

In 2000, de la Parra published Livin’ the Blues a book that (according to the site) …is the true story of the Canned Heat Band’s psychedelic hippie days as lived by Adolfo “Fito” De La Parra, a man who never forgot how to boogie and still escaped with his life! This is his story, journaling four decades on the road with boogie-blues music legends CANNED HEAT. This is a saga of hit records, world tours, drugs, sex, outrageous behavior, and death. From the heights of their world-wide fame during the Woodstock era, to the bands rebirth in the ’90s and thier continued success today ,this is the real story of the wild and excessive lifestyles of the music world!

And here is a link to an interview Fito did from Mark Hummel’s Harmonica Party.

Canned Heat Adolfo Fito de la Parra