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===Childhood and early life===
Steve Wold was born in [[Oakland, California]], as Steven Gene Leach, though his biographer suggests that he may have been [[adoption|adopted]] as a baby. He took the surname Wold in the early 1980s, from that of his second wife.<ref>Wright, 2016, p.145</ref> Official birth records confirm his birth year as 1951.<ref>State of California. California Birth Index, 1905-1995. Sacramento, CA, USA: State of California Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics, ''Ancestry.com''. Retrieved 14 August 2018</ref> In 2000, he gave his age as 50,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/reluctant-icon/Content?oid=6010|title=Reluctant Icon|first=Rick|last=Levin|website=Thestranger.com}}</ref> though later publicity implied that he was older and some sources such as [[Allmusic]] claim he was born in 1941.<ref name=allmusic>[https://www.allmusic.com/artist/seasick-steve-mn0001939829/biography Kenyon Hopkin, "Seasick Steve"], ''[[AllMusic]]''. Retrieved 14 August 2019</ref>{{not in citation|date=February 2022}}
When he was four years old, his parents split up and he continued to live with his mother. He claimed that as a child he was taught to play the guitar by [[K. C. Douglas]], who worked at his grandfather's garage, and later realised that he had been taught the blues.<ref name=OGrady>{{YouTube|tmgfVPXI2Zc|Interview on The Paul O'Grady Show}} 15 Oct 2008</ref> Douglas wrote the song "[[Mercury Blues]]" and had played with [[Tommy Johnson (blues musician)|Tommy Johnson]] in the early 1940s.<ref name="Harris">Harris, S (1989). Blues Who's Who, 5th paperback edition. New York, Da Capo Press, pp. 160-161</ref> His mother remarried, to a [[Korean War]] veteran who Wold characterized as abusive, and, at the age of about 13, Wold claimed that he left home following a violent confrontation with his stepfather.<ref>Wright, 2016, p.59</ref>
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