This trivia article was originally posted for Lead Belly's birthday.
1) What was Lead Belly's real name? Huddie Ledbetter was born January 20, 1888 in Mooringsport, Louisiana.
2)
Is it LEAD BELLY or LEADBELLY? The folk guitarist himself spelled it "Lead Belly", which is what was engraved on his tombstone. The spelling was further confirmed by the Executive Director of the Lead Belly Foundation, Terika Dean.
3) What does Lead Belly MEAN? Nobody really knows the true story, but he got his immortal nickname while serving time in prison. It's been reported that he got it because he was tough, or maybe he worked hard, or because he had an iron stomach and could eat anything. One rumor had it that he'd gotten the nickname after being shot in the stomach.
4)
What guitar did Lead Belly play? Most famously, the guitarist played a Stella Auditorium twelve-string guitar, manufactured by the Oscar Schmidt Company. The guitar is on display at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
5) Covers of Lead Belly's songs have been huge hits! Creedence Clearwater Revival famously covered Lead Belly's "Midnight Special" and "Cotton Fields" in 1969. The frantic 1977 smash hit "Black Betty" by Ram Jam was a cover of a Leadbelly prison work song. Other bands to cover Lead Belly include The Beach Boys, The Weavers, Lucinda Williams and Jack White. Speaking of covers...
6)
Kurt Cobain fantasized about buying Lead Belly's guitar for $600,000 during Nirvanna's 1994 MTV Unplugged performance. Then he played a stunning cover of Lead Belly's 1944 song "In The Pines". In 2020, Kurt's own guitar from that show sold for $6,000,000 -- the most expensive ever sold at auction.
7) Lead Belly once sang his way out of prison. While On his last day in office, Texas Governor Pat Neff fully pardoned folk musician Lead Belly, who was serving time for murder. While the pardon was made without comment, the blues musician had wrote a song about and named for the governor, and performed it for him when the lawmaker toured the prison. One line of the song went, "If I had you, Governor Neff, like you got me, I'd a-wake up in the mornin' and I'd set you free."
8)
Lead Belly was massively influential to popular music. We'll let the quotes speak for themselves:
It was Lead Belly first. I knew what it was all about from the very front. I was right into the blues. - Janis Joplin
Lead Belly is my favorite musician - Kurt Cobain, Nirvanna
Somebody I’d never seen before handed me a Lead Belly record with the song 'Cotton Fields' on it. And that record changed my life right then and there. - Bob Dylan
No Lead Belly, No Beatles. - George Harrison, Guitarist, The Beatles
Lead Belly was a big influence... When you listen to those guys, you're getting down to the root of the tree. - John Fogerty, Creedence Clearwater Revival
9) There are only two known videos of Lead Belly, from 1935 and 1945 respectively.
10)
Famed folklorist John Lomax discovered and first recorded Lead Belly, while the musician was imprisoned. Lomax worked for the Library of Congress doing "field recordings" going to wherever people were making music. He eventually became Lead Belly's manager and biggest advocate. Bonus fact, John's son Alan Lomax discovered Muddy Waters.
11) Lead Belly moved to New York in the early 1940s, and became a fixture in the Greenwich Village folk scene. Performing alongside other folk icons like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, he was largely responsible for the explosive folk revival of the 1960s, spearheaded by a young Lead Belly fan, Bob Dylan.
12)
Jelly Belly candies are named in honor of Lead Belly! The founder of the company, David Klein, was a fan of the blues guitarist.