Wow. Vy interesting...and more than a little spooky.
Yep. Blind willie got that way when hismom and pop got in a fight, and she threw lye at the father hoping to injure him but missed and hit the kid in the face. His voice is like that too because of that. But he didn’t hold ot agaisnt her, and learned to sing and play the slide guitar which you can hear pretty well in his dark was the night song. His “dark was the night” is pretty eerie sounding too.
He was a great inspiration for blues singers and even rock singers, which was why they chose his song to send into space.