An American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, from Mississippi. He is acknowledged as one of the most charismatic and influential blues musicians, with considerable prowess on the harmonica and highly creative songwriting skills. He recorded successfully in the 1950s and 1960s, and had a direct influence on later blues and rock performers.

In the 1930s, he travelled around Mississippi and Arkansas and met Big Joe Williams, Elmore James and Robert Lockwood, Jr. He was also associated with Robert Johnson during this period. Miller developed his style and raffish stage persona during these years.

Around 1941, he began to be billed as Sonny Boy Williamson, apparently in an attempt to capitalise on the fame of the well known Chicago-based harmonica player and singer Sonny Boy Williamson (born John Lee Williamson). Although the latter was a major blues star who had already released dozens of successful and widely influential records under the name Sonny Boy Williamson from 1937 onward, Miller later claimed to have been the first to use the name and some blues scholars believe that Miller's assertion that he was born in 1899 (rather than the more likely 1912) was a ruse to convince audiences that he was old enough to have used the name first.

In 1949 he relocated to Arkansas and lived with his sister and her husband, Howlin' Wolf.