Most Influential American Musician of All Time?

If Leo Fender had never been born, Jimi Hendrix would still have been a great guitarist. Like one of his mentors Jimi also played a Flying V.

As Aldavis indicated Albert King was inclined to think with an organ that wasn't between his ears. He never used alot of the gear Hendrix used or had any idea of what Jimi was doing in the studio. King sure as hell never put out anything remotely resembling Electric Ladyland. SRV was a good guitarist, but was obviously for the most part a Hendrix vessel. Most pre Hendrix blues influenced guitarists (Eddie Guitar Slim was a mind blowing exception) were barely on the same planet. Take King out of the picture and there was still a huge reservoir of blues guitar to build on and transform.

Don Van Vliet swiped stuff from alot of different places and may not be the most influential U S musician but he sure changed the rules and opened alot of doors for other musicians.

Hey, I thought the key word was "influence". Did not realize influence solely stayed within America!!!!!!!!:)

How about Ray Charles; he had best sellers on several different genres of music.

I don't think there's a way in hell to answer this, but here's a my list of nominees:

Jazz:
Louis Armstrong
Duke Ellington
Charlie Parker
Miles Davis
John Coltrane

Rock:
Elvis
Jimi Hendrix
Bob Dylan
Chuck Berry
Jerry Lee Lewis
Little Richard

Blues:
T-Bone Walker
Muddy Waters
Robert Johnson
BB King

Country:
Hank Williams
Patsy Cline
Merle Haggard
Jonny Cash

Classical:
Aaron Copland