His first band invented British folk-rock when he was still a teenager. He placed #20 on Rolling Stone's list of all-time great guitarists (and some people think he was robbed.) His songs have been performed by everybody from Bonnie Raitt to Los Lobos, from Linda Ronstadt to the Five Blind Boys of Alabama, from David Byrne to Elvis Costello.

Oh, and he's a British Muslim.

Yet with all that, Richard Thompson is still not a household...