His birthname was first simplified by his mother to Polfuss before he took his stage name. He had
nicknames of Les Paul and Red Hot Red. He was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin. He first became interested
in music at the age of eight, when he began playing the harmonica. After an attempt at learning to
play the banjo, Paul began to play the guitar. But before he played guitar he played piano. By 13,
Paul was performing semi-professionally as a country-music guitarist. At the age of 17, Paul played
with Rube Tronson's Cowboys. Soon after, he dropped out of high school to join Wolverton's Radio Band
in St. Louis, Missouri on KMOX. But his fame almost came to an end. Following a near-fatal car
accident, doctors had to position his arm at a ninety degree angle so he could still play guitar.

In the 1930s, Paul worked in Chicago in radio, where he performed jazz music. Paul's first two records
were released in 1936. One was credited to "Rhubarb Red", Paul's hillbilly alter ego, and the other was
as an accompanist for blues artist Georgia White.

In 1938, Paul moved to New York and landed a featured spot with Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians radio
show. Paul moved to Hollywood in 1943, where he formed a new trio. As a last-minute replacement for
Oscar Moore, Paul played with Nat King Cole and other artists in the inaugural Jazz at the
Philharmonic concert in Los Angeles on July 2, 1944. Also that year, Paul's trio appeared on Bing
Crosby's radio show. Crosby went on to sponsor Paul's recording experiments. The two also recorded
together several times, including a 1945 number one hit, "It's Been A Long, Long Time." In addition to
backing Crosby and artists like the Andrews Sisters, Paul's trio also recorded a few albums of their
own on the Decca label in the late 1940s.

In 1941, Paul designed and built one of the first solid-body electric guitars (though Leo Fender also
independently created his own solid-body electric guitar around the same time, and Adolph Rickenbacher
had marketed a solid-body guitar in the 30s). Gibson Guitar Corporation designed a guitar incorporating
Paul's suggestions in the early fifties, and presented it to him to try. He was impressed enough to
sign a contract for what became the "Les Paul" model (originally only in a "gold top" version), and
agreed never to be seen playing in public, or be photographed with, anything other than a Gibson guitar.
 That persisted until 1961, when Gibson changed the design without Paul's knowledge. He said he first
saw the "new" Gibson Les Paul in a music store window, and disliked it. Though his contract required
him to pose with the guitar, he said it was not "his" instrument, and asked Gibson to remove his name
from the headstock. Gibson renamed the guitar the "SG", and it also became one of the company's best
sellers. It has been said that Les had ended his endorsement contract with Gibson because he was going
through a divorce, and didn't want his wife to get all of his endorsement money. Later, Paul resumed his
relationship with Gibson, and endorses the instrument even today (though his personal Gibson Les Pauls
are much modified by him. Paul always uses his own self-wound pickups on his guitars). To this day, the
Gibson Les Paul guitar is used all over the world, by both novice and professional guitarists.

Les Paul was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in May 2005 for his development of the
solid-body electric guitar. In 2006, Paul was inducted into the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame. He
was named an honorary member of the Audio Engineering Society.[2]

By the late 1980s, Paul had returned to active weekly live performances in New York City. In 2006, at
the age of 90, Les Paul won two Grammys at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards for his album Les Paul &
Friends: American Made World Played. He also performs weekly, accompanied on piano by John Colianni,
at the Iridium Jazz Club, on Broadway in New York City, despite the arthritis that has stilled all but
two of the fingers on his left hand.