Born in Marianna, Florida, Bassett relocated with his family in 1944 to Detroit. He aspired to comedy as a child but embraced the guitar at 18, when his brother bought a guitar and amplifier at a pawn shop, turning to the blues he’d grown up listening to on the radio. He made his debut as a guitarist in the group Joe Weaver and the Bluenotes, which won local talent contests and backed Big Joe Turner, and Ruth Brown. In 1958, Bassett enlisted in the United States Army. Upon his return to Detroit he worked with the Bluenotes as session musicians for Fortune Records. During this time he provided accompaniment to Nolan Strong & the Diablos and Andre Williams.
He later backed the Miracles in a short tenure at Chess Records, working on their debut single, "Got a Job" (1958). In concerts while in Detroit, Bassett played on stage alongside John Lee Hooker, Alberta Adams, Lowell Fulson and Dinah Washington. In the 1960s, Bassett moved to Seattle, where he backed up Tina Turner, Little Willie John, and others. Jimi Hendrix was a frequent guest at the bluesman's club gigs around Seattle. Before the decade ended, he moved back to Detroit, where he was based for the remainder of his life.
The 70’s and 80’s saw Bassett emerge as a singer and front man at the encouragement of musician R.J. Spangler, who spotted the guitarist playing on a low-key side stage at the Montreux Detroit Jazz Festival in 1991. Together they formed the Blues Insurgents and Bassett enjoyed a late-life second wind as his name became acclaimed in international blues circles. Spangler declared Bassett to be the best Detroit bluesman of all time. He became known as Detroit’s Gentleman of the Blues, with a playing style that fit the moniker.
The Detroit Blues Society recognized Bassett's contribution to the blues with a lifetime achievement award in 1994. He released the album I Gave My Life to the Blues on the Dutch label Black Magic in 1996, before recording and touring in North America and Europe with his own backing band, the Blues Insurgents. Their 1998 album Cadillac Blues was nominated for five W. C. Handy Awards. His record label at the time, Cannonball Records, ceased to trade, but Mack Avenue Records signed him to a new recording contract, after its owner saw Bassett and his band play in concert in the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe.
At the 2003 Great Lakes Folk Festival, Bassett performed as part of the Detroit Blues Revue with Alberta Adams and Joe Weaver. At the 2006 Detroit Music Awards, Bassett won an award for Outstanding Blues/R&B Instrumentalist. In 2010 and 2011, he was awarded the Outstanding Blues Artist/Group title.
The Detroit Music Awards honored his 2009 release, The Gentleman is Back as Outstanding National Small/Independent Label Recording. Bassett and his band (Chris Codish, keyboards; Keith Kaminski, saxophone; and Skeeto Valdez, drums) played weekly at the Northern Lights Lounge in Detroit. Well into his seventies, he toured extensively and seduced his audiences with his incomparable elegance and class, both on guitar and vocals.
In his later years Bassett had been declining in health and was diagnosed with liver cancer. He was moved to hospice care at St. John Hospital in Grosse Pointe, Detroit during July where he died on August 4, 2012 at the age of 76..
In April of 2022 The Killer Blues Headstone Project placed a headstone for Johnnie Bassett at the Detroit Memorial Cemetery in Warren, MI.
(Edited from Wikipedia, Detroit Free Press, Soulbag & AllMusic)