Pretty shitty way to start out life too.
"...Johnson was not born blind, and, although it is not known how he lost his sight, Angeline Johnson provided the following account to Samuel Charters. She said when Willie was seven his father beat his stepmother after catching her going out with another man. The stepmother then picked up a handful of lye and threw it, not at Willie's father, but into the face of young Willie.[2]..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Willie_Johnson