Stephen Lawrence Winwood was born May 12, 1948 in Birmingham, England. He was instantly attracted to music and learned the guitar, piano and drums as a child before he headed up the locally successful group the Muff Woody Jazz Band with his brother Muff. In 1963 Winwood along with Spencer Davis created the Spencer Davis Group. The group created several classic R&B styled singles including "Gimme Some Lovin'." But Winwood was influenced by jazz and wanted to work in that arena rather than the pop format so he left the group in 1967 and created Traffic, along with guitarist Dave Mason, horn player Chris Wood and drummer Jim Capaldi, the quartet who performed with Winwood on the hit "Gimme Some Lovin'."

The group blended British folk, jazz and R&B to create hit singles before issuing the debut Mr. Fantasy. The group returned with Traffic in 1968 but after turmoil between Winwood and Mason disrupted new material the group split in 1969. Winwood wasn't done with music just yet, however. He started working in recordings before hooking up with Eric Clapton, who'd just left the Cream. Winwood's group, which also include former Cream drummer Ginger Baker, were the talk of the town and started getting gigs before they even had any material to show for it. The group, named Blind Faith, released an album in 1969 but split by the end of the year.

A Traffic reunion resulted in John Barleycorn Must Die in 1970, followed by several more albums. When Traffic broke up in '74 Winwood became a session man before going solo. His debut solo album appeared in 1977 but the moderate success of the album led to a brief hiatus from the music business. Though several more albums saw only moderate success, his 1986 album Back in the High Life was his first huge success and led him to more solo success over the years.