In 1963, Bishop met harmonica player
Paul Butterfield in the neighborhood of
Hyde Park, joined Butterfield's
blues band, and remained with them for five years. Bishop was originally Butterfield's only guitarist, but was later joined by
Mike Bloomfield, who largely assumed the lead guitar role for the band's first two albums. After Bloomfield departed, the Butterfield Band's third album,
The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw, took its name from Bishop's nickname and his renewed role as lead guitarist. In 1968, he went solo and formed the Elvin Bishop Group, also performing with Bloomfield and
Al Kooper on their album titled
The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper. The group signed with Fillmore Records, which was owned by
Bill Graham, who also owned the Fillmore music venues. Bishop sat in with the
Grateful Dead on June 8, 1969, at the
Fillmore West in San Francisco. He opened the second set with the lengthy blues jam "Turn on Your Lovelight" without
Pigpen or
Jerry. He played two more songs with the Dead, "The Things I Used to Do" and "Who's Lovin' You Tonight." In March 1971, the Elvin Bishop Group and
the Allman Brothers Band co-billed a series of concerts at the
Fillmore East. Bishop joined the Allman Brothers Band onstage for a rendition of his own song, "Drunken-Hearted Boy". Over the years, Bishop has recorded with many other blues artists, such as
John Lee Hooker, and with Zydeco artist
Clifton Chenier. In late 1975, he played guitar for a few tracks on
Bo Diddley's ''The 20th Anniversary of Rock 'n' Roll
album and, in 1995, he toured with B.B. King. but a year later in 1976, he released his most memorable single, "Fooled Around and Fell in Love", which peaked at number three in the US Billboard'' Hot 100
chart During the 1960s and 1970s, he recorded for the Fillmore, Epic, and Capricorn labels. In 2008, Bishop released
The Blues Rolls On, on September 23, 2008, switching labels to
Delta Groove Music. He was supported by
Tommy Castro,
James Cotton,
Warren Haynes, B.B. King,
Derek Trucks,
George Thorogood,
Kim Wilson,
John Németh, and
Angela Strehli. The album was nominated for
Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. In 2010, Bishop released
Red Dog Speaks. His first live concert DVD, ''That's My Thing: Elvin Bishop Live in Concert'', was recorded live at the Club Fox in
Redwood City, California, on December 17, 2011. It was released on the Delta Groove label in October 2012. The DVD was nominated for Best Blues DVD of 2012 by the
Blues Foundation. The same organization announced that Bishop had six nominations for the 36th
Blues Music Awards held in May 2015. He triumphed in three of them. In April 2015, Bishop was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an original member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. In November 2017, his album ''Elvin Bishop's Big Fun Trio
received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. The Grammy was won by the Rolling Stones for Blue and Lonesome.'' In November 2021, his album with
Charlie Musselwhite,
100 Years of Blues, received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. Bishop lost to Cedric Burnside for his album
I Be Trying. ==Personal life==