Leadbelly (film) For a while, she takes care of him until the police arrive, breaking up a party. Leadbelly and an old man escape via a train and Leadbelly buys a twelve-string acoustic guitar from the old man. Seeking work, he takes a job picking cotton. He soon leaves on a train to Silver City where he meets Blind Lemon and they start playing shows together. At one show, a drunken man tells Leadbelly to keep playing, and threatens him. Leadbelly responds by smashing his guitar onto him and is arrested. He escapes from jail and leads a normal life until he
Don Was he grew up listening to the Detroit blues sound and the jazz music of John Coltrane and Miles Davis, amongst many others. As a teenager, Was was further influenced by the Beat Generation, most notably John Sinclair. In high school, Was was the lead singer and guitar player in a Detroit rock band called the Saturns. The first recording project that he engineered and produced was in 1971 with drummer Muruga Booker on a recording called "Rama Rama / Endless Path". Using the stage name "Don Was", he formed the group Was (Not Was) with school friend David Weiss (David