For half a century, Sleepy LaBeef has lived his life on stages, in honky-tonks, and on the road. He has released records in six different decades and has had chart success as far back as the sixties and as recently as the year 2000. Sleepy LaBeef has shared bills with practically every great in music history: Elvis Presley, George Jones, Roy Orbison, Wanda Jackson, Carl Perkins, has numbered in his band over five hundred people (including the likes of Doug Kershaw, Kenny Rogers, Glen Campbell, D.J. Fontana, and Grady Martin), and has been an admitted influence to such a variety of people as Brian Setzer, Bruce Springsteen, and the Beatles.

Sleepy LaBeef, who has been dubbed the Bull, the Road Warrior, and the Human Jukebox, has been laying down a seemingly endless variety of roots music since 1953, when he moved to Texas from his home state of Arkansas. Here, Sleepy began to gain notoriety as a singer while performing at the Magnolia Gardens, the Houston Jamboree, the Louisiana Hayride, and scores of bars, family shows, and spots on both radio and television.

Managed by Hal Harris (now, remembered most for his song, “Jitterbop Baby”), Sleepy released a dozen rockabilly singles in the fifties, recording at Pappy Daily’s famous Gold Star Studios. In 1964, LaBeef was signed with Columbia, where he had his first chart success, with “Every Day”, in 1968. At the end of the decade, he signed with Shelby Singleton’s Plantation label and earned a top twenty hit with “Blackland Farmer.” He recorded from the early seventies till 1979 on Sun, when he switched to Rounder, releasing several critically successful albums until signing with MC records and charting, once again, with “Detour” in 2000.

As significant as his recording career has been, it is the live Sleepy LaBeef that is important. Today, at 67, Sleepy still performs two hundred shows a year and plays with such energy that people a third of his age are annihilated when they attempt to keep up with him.

Sleepy LaBeef’s live sets are truly indescribable. One must see them to understand that he is doing nothing less than giving up his body to the spirit of the music and testifying. In this day of studio effects and ever-changing technology, many record buyers wonder why a live show even matters. Sleepy LaBeef is the answer.

Mr. LaBeef is as modest and spiritually grounded as he is ablaze, arguably the world‘s greatest living roots legend, and he seems unaware that he is the inspiration to three generations of roots music lovers.

“Ah, I’m just out there having fun,” he says, in his deep, humble, Arkansas drawl.

So speaks the giant in the black Stetson hat. The Bull. The Road Warrior. The Human Jukebox. Sleepy LaBeef.

--- John Kite